Fifty New Cops!

Hooray!!! The manpower shortage has been solved!!!

• Twenty-one Illinois law enforcement agencies, including Chicago and numerous suburban departments, will receive nearly $26 million in federal stimulus money to hire or rehire 106 police officers.

  The money is part of $1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds that will help pay the salaries and benefits of 4,699 police officers nationwide. Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder today announced the money would be distributed among 1,046 agencies throughout the country.

  The city of Chicago is slated to receive more than $13 million for 50 entry-level police officers. Calumet City will get more than $1 million for five officers.

That will cover the retirements from March of two years ago! We can't wait to meet these new highly trained officers in another year or so. By which point we should be another thousand or so officers short.

Color us underwhelmed.