Heroes Wanted: Chicago PD Hiring An Insane Number Of Officers

Chicago PD is hiring almost 1,000 officers in the next two years.

Heroes Wanted: Chicago PD Hiring An Insane Number Of Officers

Chicago – While the nation was fixated on two recent high-profile officer-involved shootings and the subsequent riots, Chicago PD announced that they are hiring an insane number of new officers.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced that they would hire almost 1,000 new officers in the next two years. The positions would include 516 Officers, 92 Field Training Officers, 200 Detectives, 112 Sergeants, and 50 Lieutenants.

Supt. Johnson said at a press conference on Wednesday, “We’re going to add officers to areas experiencing violent crime, and we’re going to fill vacancies in districts in communities across the city. And so because Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s, because of his strong support, we’re going to get all the things that we ask for.”

“The truth is we can’t pull officers from the safer communities into the more violent ones. Gang members will figure that out and shift their operations. I’m confident that these added resources will make us better and give us the capacity we need to address our crime problems across the city,” Supt. Johnson Continued.

A significant amount of the hiring costs are expected to come from reduced overtime. Chicago PD had been dealing with the staffing shortage by having officers work excessive amounts of overtime. Chicago PD paid their officers over $116 million in overtime in 2015.

Black Lives Matter Chicago released a statement criticizing the increase in police hiring, saying that more police can only be bad. The group blames Rahm Emmanuel for the increase in crime during the past few years, quoting statistics about the number of homicides increasing each year since he was elected. What they failed to mention is that Chicago PD’s staffing has been dropping during that same time period, and groups like Black Lives Matter are putting political pressure on police not to do their jobs.

Chicago PD has not yet announced when they would be taking applications.