19th Police District Down 34 Beat Officers in 2012

There are fewer officers patrolling the streets in Lake View, according to a recent look at Chicago Police Department staffing numbers. 

A Chicago Sun-Times analysis found that since Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office, there are fewer beat officers across the city. Many police districts on the North Side were hit hard, it indicates.

The 19th District of the Chicago Police Department shows a decrease of 34, the report says. It was among those losing the most officers. Joining them were the 18th, 12th, 13th, 24th and with the highest loss of 79 officers, the 2nd districts.

The 19th district was recently merged with the department's 23rd. It serves a large area of residents from Lawrence Avenue on the north, Fullerton Avenue on the south, the Chicago River on the west and Lake Michigan on the east. 

The Sun-Times reports:

The reason is simple: For every newly hired officer assigned to a beat during the past two years, six other sworn members of the department have retired.

And because about 1,200 retirements have sharply depleted the payroll, rank-and-file police staffing even in some high-crime areas where new officers were added last year is again declining, the Sun-Times found.

The analysis further discovered that while since May 2011, nine districts have seen an increase in beat officers, the total number in Chicago has fallen by 108—a direct contradiction to Emanuel's inauguration promise to increase the beat officer ranks.

Reporters Dan Mihalopoulos and Frank Main found that the number of beat officers in the city did rise in the fall of 2011, but began to decline soon after.

Read the full story: Rahm Emanuel’s police deployment shuffle

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