The Letter - Very Long Post

OK, we finally got a few e-mails, including at least one exempt who forwarded it from their personal account. We expect IAD will be told to track down that exempt first thing Monday morning. Here's the letter that was posted to most exempts in the Patrol Division Bureau of Patrol. The original is italicized. Our comments appear in the bold:

• Words can not describe the anger, outrage, and sorrow, we all felt Monday morning when Alex Valadez was violently taken from us by 2 "spineless cowards." Yet, those emotions were funneled into great police work allowing charges to be lodged almost immediately. That end result is due in great part to the initial observations of TRU Officers whose keen eyes spotted the offender's parked car allowing the investigation to rapidly advance. The rest was great team work by all Department resources to send a clear message; you will not kill a Chicago Police Officer and get away with it!

It was great police work, mixed in with a bit of luck, that located the vehicle and Dugan is right to note it. After all, what police work isn't hard work and being in the right place at the right time?

• Alex's murder in a drive-by shooting underscores the impunity in which gangbangers operate. While we can't control what the judges do (or don't do), we sure can impact on gangbangers driving abilities. There are too many guns in cars left unchecked and traffic enforcement as a means to ferret out these illegal weapons is almost a lost art. We need to get back to basics and focus on gangbangers in vehicles. A vehicle impounded for noise or any of the other categories can't be used in a drive-by! Take their cars and leave 'em walking!
  
  It is unconscionable what happened to Alex Valadez; a Chicago Police Officer gunned down in a drive-by shooting while standing on a sidewalk. Shame on us!

These appear to be the paragraphs that a number of commentators are making hay about. Dugan says that traffic enforcement to find illegal weapons is a lost art, but it's probably more of a dormant art. Everyone is still more than a bit wary about cameras, J-Fed, recent court rulings and the like. A lack of training to work within the changing ground rules is a Department failure, not an officer failure. Leaders are supposed to lead by definition, by design and by example. This isn't happening because the leaders don't trust those leading them. Witness the upheaval within the exempt ranks - it's downright embarrassing.

The quote, "Shame on us!" when taken on it's own should upset any officer worthy of the badge. But taken in context and in the message Dugan was trying to convey, it's merely a poor choice of words and not worthy of outrage.

• This is an excerpt from this morning's John Kass column, "...It's a terrible thing what happened to that officer, but there's something good about it, if that's possible," said the man, who identified himself as Cornell. Residents say the neighborhood has swarmed with police since the shooting, and the men who usually hang out on the street are lying low. "It's so quiet now. Old people feel they can come outside, and sit on the porch, and the old women can mess around in their yards, with their flowers," he said. "It's quiet now."
  
  What was done in Englewood in the wake of Alex's murder was the right thing to do, but it begs the question, why aren't we doing this all the time? Did it take the murder of one of our own to finally step it up and do the right thing for the right reasons? We should be targeting the gangbanging, gun toting thugs, and taking them off the street ALL THE TIME! We put a lot of resources in 007 to send a message. Its time we take that message to other parts of the City.

Why aren't we doing this all the time? BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE THE FUCKING MANPOWER! We can shut down any neighborhood any time we want for a short period, maybe a week tops. And then mission creep sets in. Reverend start to bitch. Gangsters agitate because they're in the business of making money and too much of the community relies on the underground economy provided by dope. The community senses an opportunity to score a lottery ticket on the police and start making allegations.

And it's not just in that neighborhood. The gangs in other parts of the city feel the pressure ease up because so much is devoted to one area and they start to settle old scores, make territory moves that might have been kept in check before, move more work, recruit more customers, etc.

The only way Dugan's "message" is going to be felt is with a wave of hiring, an exodus of hidden house mice, and a "back-to-the-basics" approach that involves fully staffing Beat cars, Rapids and watches around the city with support from specialized units. Not all this "Strike Force" bullshit that strips the districts, has people running around putting out fires, and then leaving a neighborhood (and the district) in the lurch when another "fire" pops up 4 miles away. Temporary pressure doesn't stop the bleeding and a tourniquet usually means the amputation of the limb. This is the same thing.

• I am asking the District/Unit Commanders to step way out of the box and look at every conceivable way to increase vehicle stops/impoundments so that these gangbanging thugs will not feel they can drive around armed, looking for prey. Every drive-by has the potential for hitting an innocent person and we can not allow another Police Officer to fall victim again. Don't let our previous ways of doing things get in the way of your creative ideas. I'm really tired of hearing "we can't do it because...." You have the mission, how are we going to get it done?
  
  In the next couple of days, I expect Area Deputy Chiefs and the ADS SFG to meet with your respective District/Unit Commanders and kick around ideas to accomplish the mission. Wednesday afternoon I will be meeting with the Deputy Chiefs to discuss what ideas you have come up with.

You have a force already - you stripped it from the Districts. MSF or TRU or GEU should do a few months of directed impound missions if that's what you want. Order "no discretion" for driving offenses. Suspended? Tow it. Revoked? Tow it and crush it. Loud sound? Impound it. Fireworks? Whores? Guns? Take it, no breaks.

The districts are in constant backlog and can't run the missions piled on them now. We're running from legit domestics, to baby momma drama, to disrespecting 12-year-olds, to babysitting ambulances that never asked for an assist in the first place. And that's to say nothing of the dope jobs, anonymous disturbances on the corners, false burglar alarms, an AIRA system that takes three times as long to fill out as a paper report, an iCLEAR system that's down five times a week for "maintenance," four hour waits for theft jobs, half manpower on the desks...do we have to go on? You have your Strike Force at the cost of District response times - use it.

• For years I've heard "you can't get in trouble if you don't do anything." I bristled when I first heard it and my attitude hasn't changed today. District/Unit Commanders have an absolute obligation to ensure personnel under their Command are "pulling their weight." BOP has previously sent out a "2008" listing of those under your Command with little to no activity. As I expect you to hold your Watch Commanders accountable, I am holding you accountable for your Command. We can't afford to have spectators; we need WARRIORS and should expect nothing less!

We, too, bristled when we first heard that. But then we saw lots of people with certain last names who could do "anything" and skate like it was nothing. We saw dogs getting ahead while damn good street coppers toiled in anonymity without anything like a fair shot at a promotion and the chance to mold and lead new generations. We saw the political administration treat cops like crap, dragging out "negotiations" for years for the simple reason that they knew we couldn't strike back.

And then we watched our "leaders." A superintendent that liked to hang out with the Outfit. A serial sexual harasser promoted. A drug using Chief who pissed hot - twice. The bedroom antics of quite a number of bosses. An Assistant Superintendent who had guns and drugs stored at a property registered in her name. Were any of them held "accountable?" No. If the rumors are to be believed, these aren't even the tiniest tip of the iceberg.

Here's the thing about WARRIORS - they have to be led. They have to have the support of the organization. And they in turn have to have confidence in the organization. That isn't present here.

And here's the thing about organizations - when they fail, the LEADERS are supposed to be held accountable, to fall on their swords. Not throw the warriors under the bus. Accountability at the LEADER level isn't happening anywhere.

And when that happens, warriors do what they do best - survive to fight another day.