A Brief Summary of Tonight's Public Safety Town Hall Meeting
Tonight's meeting was attended by about 175-200 ward constituents who had an array of concerns, from burglaries, traffic concerns around Taft HS, underage drinking and teen rowdiness at Wildwood Park, scrap trucks driving through the alleys, very long response times to 911 calls etc...
The recurring theme to almost every concern voiced:
NOT ENOUGH POLICE OFFICERS
The Commander states that he has requested more police officers from CPD administration. The alderman said she is frustrated and concerned. When asked what specifically has been done: not much of a response. All we were told is that there is going to be a new system as to how police officers will be dispatched to calls in the future and no one is aware of the details.
In the meantime, the alderman and the commander want everyone calling 911 for everything to boost our numbers of calls for service.
I specifically asked the alderman how she could have voted for the mayor's budget knowing we have so few police, and not enough new police officer positions were written into the budget (only 500 new positions were allocated, and it is estimated the city needs about 2000 new officers to replace officers retired in the last five years as well as for the next fiscal year).
No specifics...only some vague responses about sitting in council meetings listening to the needs of the entire city. The alderman said she lobbies for us. To that, I say to the alderman - one of the most effective ways to lobby for us is to not vote for budgets that do not meet our needs. A few officers/41st ward residents at the meeting said the new officers are all slated to go to the south and west sides. Where does that leave us?
Post your thoughts...
One interesting tidbit, I learned today, is that the Office of Emergency Management (the dispatchers who take your 911 calls) do the prioritizing of the call. And, according to the commander, they sit on calls they perceive not to be a priority. Therefore, if you call 911 and the response is taking to long - call the 16th District Desk, too. According to the commander, the desk sarge can check the status of your 911 call and make sure someone responds.
ReplyDeleteThank God only 5 people are exposed to this asinine dribble. You should just move to a community where you can enjoy an alderman who beats his chest and brings absolutely nothing back to his ward. You clearly have no idea what it takes to actually govern.
ReplyDeleteI can only speculate as to the source of this arrogant outburst. I would like to suggest you take a civics and a political lesson. Alderman do not govern. They are legislators paid to represent their constituents and don't win votes by insulting them and telling them to move.
DeleteBP
I read there were a number of aldermen who did not vote for the Mayor's budget citing not enough dollars for police.
ReplyDeleteThe mayor has his priorities; one of those being the 24-7 bending-over-backwards protection of rich people who live and shop on Michigan av. Need a cop to arrest the guy kicking in your garage door? Kindly ask the thug to stand by while the 911 call is prioritized, dispatched, and finally, a cop arrives from Gold Coast to make the arrest.
ReplyDeleteNice vote Mary.
I was there. The best comment of the night, was the last one where the man said. The commander has is hands tied, the alderman can do nothing, you have to go straight to city hall to get anything done. So everyone, go to city hall and ask the mayor why our response times are 10 times longer on the NW side of the city. Ask when will we be getting 50 new officers to replace the ones leaving out of the 16th?
ReplyDeleteThe times I have called 911 - takes forever for a squad to respond. I usually have to call three and four times.
DeleteSo why do we need 50 aldermen if we have to go directly to the mayor to demand police service? Cut the number of aldermen by half and use the money to hire more cops for the 16th - now, THAT IS A PLAN!
ReplyDeleteCompare and contrast: The 41st and 45th wards share ward boundries, the 16th Police district, and Taft High Scool. The 41st ward web site is filled with fluff, while the 45th website is packed with usefull information, including a front page explanation from Alderman Arena on why he rejected Rahm's budget.
ReplyDeleteArena states, "(The budget) has unrealistic revenue assumptions while cutting our distric-level police, too much spending on overtime, and further outsourcing of city jobs to out-of-state vendors.
Alderman Arena hit the nail on the head, with one exception - Rahm will plant more speed camaras in the 41st than any other ward, because he knows it will go unchallenged. $$$$$$$
Because Arena is a cop, and he knows what is really going on, while O'Connor doesn't want to rock the boat with her cushy pt job.
DeleteThe do nothingness means one thing - get ready to protect yourselves. Message is clear to me the Mayor sees public safety as a low priority and won't invest in it. The alderman should have voted "no" to the budget to show the mayor our priority is public safety.
ReplyDeleteShe will never vote against the mayor and for the actual needs of the 41st ward because she is a puppet for the mayor. I reviewed all of her rhetoric from when she was campaigning for our votes and two years in she has done NOTHING .....that office can't even return a phone call much less take actual action for the 41st ward. I think all she cares about is the title and how it has boosted her catering business.
DeleteI was there. The majority of the people at the meeting were there because of the out of control crime in Wildwood and edgebrook. Need more cops. No getting around that issue. What I thought was interesting is how, when challenged the alderman turned the issue back on us - sorry, but, we do call and it takes FOREVER to get a response. We are the the issue. A letter writing campaign is ridiculous. The alderman needs to go balistic on the Mayor in front of the cameras to get anything done. We all know the mayor lives and breathes through the media. forget the letter and get our elected representative to grow a pair.
ReplyDeleteAnd nice to see that Lisa Madigan is challenging the court decision to force Illinois to allow CC, and build laws around it. You just know this thing will get overturned. The criminals come to the nice areas because they know we won't expect it, and we won't be armed. The alderman won't go off on Rahm, as she's got his back. Funny how many of the politicians carry. Rahm has his armed bodyguards, no worries there.
DeleteThis is Rahm. The honor is all yours. The last I recall hearing of Edgebrook was during my childhood on the North Shore. I recall having to visit a black sheep relative who lived there. Our limo driver got lost along the way. Anyway, I suggest you people in Edgebrook/Wildwood call my friends at ADT.
ReplyDeleteFor a down payment and nominal monthly fee ADT will dispatch a private security vehicle when you press the panic button. A small additional fee is added for yellow crime scene tape and sidewalk chalk outlines.
Oh, one more thing. Stop complaining. Prior to running for mayor I spent my entire career privatizing, outsourcing, and insider trading. You knew what you were getting when you voted me in by a landslide. Now get back to work.
I thought it was also interesting, while the Commander fully admitted that the 16th District is well short of the number of officers it should have, he also brought up a few times how most crimes (other than cars stolen and garage thefts) are flat or slightly down. When I asked him how much those two numbers are correlated...that one major reason the number of crimes/incidents reported might be down isn't because there's actually less crime but because there aren't enough police officers to do the proper patrols and catch these things and not enough police officers to respond appropriately when people do call 911 before the scene has dispursed and nothing ends up filed, he had no answer and tap-danced around his response.
ReplyDeleteAlderman O'Connor pointed out that she isn't a yeller or screamer, and that she likes to do her work behind closed doors. That would be all well and good if we saw ANY evidence of her approach working. As they pointed out, I'm sure it's not easy advocating for us to get our share of cops. But considering how much we pay in property taxes and the fact so many of our families are the ones that work in various areas for this city, especially in public safety, we certainly deserve to be fairly protected...or at the VERY LEAST have our represntative in the City Council be someone who isn't afraid to stand up for us. I simply do not see evidence of this from O'Connor. That does make you wonder if all the money that came pouring her way from the machine in the run-off has her, at the very least, a muted good soldier.
Danny
Danny, I thought you asked a well thought out and logical question. Easy to boast same or slightly lower crime numbers when there are so few officers, on patrol to actually observe crime/intervene during a crime as it occurs. And yes, it was disappointing to get no response to such a great question.
DeleteStatistics can be used to support or undercut almost any argument; the commander & alderman are taking full advantage of that fact.
Using only crime stats/calls for service to determine police man hours needed in the geographically largest police district in the city lacks basic common sense. It takes twice the time to respond to calls in the 16th because of distance...is that factored into these decisions? Police presence deters crime. If there are less officers on the street, no such prevention occurs. Is that factored into these decisions not to add police in the 16th? No, all we hear is "crime is down", like that makes any sense when the truth is "crime is down because there are no officers to actually observe and intervene". Mark Twain once said, "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics".
I wouldn't trust the politicians to tell us what's happening on the streets. As a copper, they're the ones on the front lines. While I'm no gun nut, I was certainly looking forward to CC, even if I didn't CC all the time. It's just a matter of time before we start seeing a murder or two committed while in the act of a sexual assault or robbery.
DeleteDanny you hit the nail on the head.....she is afraid to stand up for us in the city council. That $100k in campaign funds didn't come from a failing restaurant/deli....although a big portion came from the other puppet Mulroe. Can we get a 41st ward alderman back in office that actually cares about the ward and not the title (ego)? With the taxes we pay, she should be a yeller at council meetings...what a joke.
DeleteSince when is sitting in your office behind closed doors a strategy to get anything done?
ReplyDeletebehind closed doors - sounds like the "Daley" way.
DeleteI was there too, and left frustrated like everyone else including the commander. And I still don't understand why the alderman approved of a budget that didn't specifically give us more coppers.
ReplyDeleteThe alderman also approved the first Rahm budget, which outsourced the jobs of 30+ Water Department Call Center workers to a firm based in Japan. That's right - freaking Japan. I will vote for the aldermanic candidate who vows to oppose the outsourcing or downsizing of any city jobs - The exception being the downsizing of the Chicago City Council, from 50 to about 10.
DeleteImpeach Rahm now!
I would like to see a ward by ward breakdown of fire and police department expenditures as well as a breakdown of the allocation of manpower. Let's face it we pay more than our fair share and are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to the distribution of city resources. I realize that everything is not always going to be completely equitable. Some will get more than they pay for and some less. That's life, but when the disparity is so broad that a blind man can see it, something is wrong. If our Alderman wants to focus on the needs of City as a whole I suggest she run for mayor so we can elect someone focused on the needs of the 41st ward.
ReplyDeleteBP
O'Conner "run for mayor"? More like run from mayor.
ReplyDeleteShe won't. She's a stooge for him, regardless of party affiliation.
DeleteIf the alderwoman hasn't done a street stop, can she tell how to police? I've never made a deli sandwich, so I really can't tell her how /when/where/why to buy and/or assenble a sandwich.
ReplyDeleteAmerica
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-the-90n-cta-bus-route/
ReplyDeleteWe're at 158 signatures, keep up the pressure on O'Connor to reverse the elimination of 4 routes in the 41st Ward, more than any other area in Chicago
The Commander states that he has requested more police officers from CPD administration. The alderman said she is frustrated and concerned.
ReplyDeleteShe's a stooge for Rahm. I wouldn't trust O'Connor, unless its about replacing a street light, or fixing a pothole.
ReplyDeleteThey know the numbers. They know Comstat is a bunch mumbo jumbo, hocus pocus with the numbers.
All these politicians, both local and national, need a wakeup call. They're a bit too comfortable playing around with our money and our safety.
You give her too much credit fixing potholes and lights....that office never returns calls and she is never there....but I bet the catering business is turning around.
Delete