CPD Quick Hits

A whole passel of police stories in the news today:

• Chicago police may soon have a new cop to honor as its first officer slain in the line of duty.

  In an about-face from previous police administrations, Supt. Jody Weis has applied to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund to include Constable James Quinn as an in-the-line-of-duty death after he was killed in a seedy part of Chicago in 1853.

  If approved Friday by a "names committee" at the Washington-based memorial foundation, Quinn would bypass Casper Lauer, stabbed to death in 1854, as the first officer killed in the city.

This appears to be the correct decision by J-Fed, but it doesn't begin to balance the scales against what he's done wrong. Don't lose sight of the bigger picture.

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One month is not a trend - don't be counting chickens just yet:

• The city of Chicago - which saw a spike in homicides last year -- recorded 29 percent fewer homicides last month than it did in January 2008, Chicago police said today.

  There were no homicides reported in 13 of the 25 district police districts in the city, the department said.

  Crime decreased in every category last month with the exception of robbery, which increased 1.6 percent.

J-Fed, grasping at any straw he can, is claiming the weather had nothing to do with it:

• Murders were down a total of about 29 percent, with 34 reported in January 2008 and 24 in January 2009, according to a release from police. Thirteen of 25 police districts reported no murders last month.

  Supt. Jody Weis credited new violence reduction strategies, rather than frigid weather, including implementation of a new Mobile Strike Force, which has been utilized in four districts.

Maybe it didn't. But it was the coldest January in over 10 years. We'd be leery of making any sort of long term projections without taking all factors into consideration. A ten homicide difference is a bad week in North Lawndale/Austin or a really bad weekend in Area 1. Beware of the warming trend this weekend.

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Here come the Tahoes:

• It's a long way from horse-drawn police wagons.
  
  Before the snow melts this early spring, Chicago police should begin receiving new Chevrolet Tahoe sport-utility vehicles (right), part of Supt. Jody Weis' plan to replace the entire fleet of Crown Victorias, the police car of choice for decades.
  
  The SUVs have been a pet project of Weis' since he took over almost a year ago. In November, the city signed a $59 million contract with suburban Advantage Chevrolet to provide as many as 2,000 Tahoes over the next three years, but given the city's budget woes, it's unclear how many will actually hit the street.

Wait a minute....what was that last line?

• ...but given the city's budget woes, it's unclear how many will actually hit the street.

Ah yes. The loophole. And this paragraph made us laugh so hard, we hurt something:

• If Chicago replaces its entire fleet with SUVs, it would be the first big city to do so, although some smaller towns, such as Plano, Texas, have done it. Those towns cite higher resale values and more room for police gear.

Police gear? What police gear? And resale value? We're still waiting to see when someone is going to pick up on the little scam that Fleet has going where they sell damaged squad cars for $100 to connected scrap yards instead of cannibalizing these cars for the thousands of dollars in parts the way the garages used to when the Department ran them.