May 24, 2011

Mayor Emanuel Announces Redeployment of 500 Officers To Our Streets Strengthening Ability To Patrol And Protect Chicago's Neighborhoods

Mayor's Press Office    312.744.3334

This morning Mayor Emanuel announced the redeployment of 500 Chicago Police Department (C.P.D.) officers to the beat, enhancing police officers’ capacity to protect Chicago’s streets and build strong relationships with community members in the neighborhoods they serve.

“Without the security and safety of our streets we cannot have successful, thriving communities where people want to live and stay," said Mayor Emanuel. “Successful policing begins with the beat officers who earn the trust of the communities they serve, shift by shift and patrol by patrol. This is a down payment on my promise to add 1,000 police officers to the beat. We cannot beat crime without more officers on the beat.”

Mayor Emanuel made the announcement at the Chicago Police Department’s 6th Police District Headquarters in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. He was joined by acting Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy; Felicia Davis, the Mayor’s First Deputy Chief of Staff and a former Chicago police officer; 11th Ward Alderman James Balcer, Chairman of the Committee on Public Safety; and 17th Ward Alderman Latasha Thomas.

The 500 police officers will come primarily from the Department’s Mobile Strike Force and Targeted Response Unit. The officers will begin their new assignments as early as Thursday with all of them on the beat by Sunday.

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