003 Discipline

First, the impersonator gets released from custody:

• A 14-year-old boy who impersonated a Chicago police officer last month was ordered by a Cook County judge Friday to be released from custody on electronic monitors.

And now the disciplinary axe begins to fall:

• On Jan. 24, the youth, wearing a police uniform, showed up at the Grand Crossing District station, allegedly saying he was a Calumet District officer assigned to traffic patrol in Grand Crossing. He signed out a radio and joined an officer in a patrol car, prosecutors said.

  He then allegedly spent five hours on traffic patrol, investigators said.

  The stunt set off a furor in the city, with Supt. Jody Weis eventually forced to testify before angry aldermen. An internal investigation completed this week found at least five Chicago Police employees violated department rules and regulations, investigators said this week.

We are hearing more than a few stories about who's getting what kind of time off. We're sure it'll be news when it comes to light, but the comedy of errors that led to a 14-year-old being allowed to ride along, actually drive a squad car and whatever else he did is indicative of a whole bunch of institutional shortfalls. And institutional shortfalls are the fault of the brass, not the PO's. We know who will be taking most of the time though.