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Chicago cutting OT for CAPS-related community policing
By Fran Spielman and Frank Main
Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Chicago Police officers will no longer be paid overtime to attend monthly beat meetings or community policing functions in a budget-cutting move that, critics warn, could put the 15-year-old program "on life support."
Police Supt. Jody Weis' Aug. 5 edict means beat officers who have their fingers on the pulse of neighborhood crime issues and have established relationships with residents are likely to be replaced at CAPS meetings and marches by exempt officers who don't get overtime.
Under pressure to do his part to close the city's $400 million budget gap, Weis is banking on the parts being interchangeable.
Black ministers who have met privately with Weis to re-establish trust between citizens and police say he is betting wrong.
"It's kind of hard to imagine that the superintendent takes community policing seriously with a change like that. It'll have a negative impact. It'll probably put it on life support," said the Rev. Marshall Hatch, chairman of the Leaders Network.
"When you look at an almost 20 percent increase in murders over last year and crime being up, this should be the last place to cut."
The overtime cut comes at a time when murders through July are up 18 percent over the same period last year. Still, the city's murder totals over the last four years -- and even this year -- have been the lowest in decades.
The Rev. Albert Tyson, pastor of St. Stephen A.M.E. Church, 3050 W. Washington, called the ban on CAPS-related overtime "another indication that they're backing off community policing" as a law enforcement tool.
"We've already got bad relationships [between citizens and police]. This could lead to worsening relationships because the interest is in saving money instead of saving lives," Tyson said.
CAPS director Vance Henry tried to put the best possible face on the overtime ban.
"We're gonna have officers at beat meetings. You're talking about sergeants and lieutenants who are field supervisors anyway. I don't see this as a concern. We'll make sure that we continue to listen to the community and leverage resources from city agencies to address issues raised. That's the hallmark of community policing. We craft strategies to solve problems" before they lead to crime, Henry said.
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Copyright 2008 Chicago Sun-Times
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