Manpower Shortage More Evident

Someday, someone will connect the dots and say our readers were right all along:

• South Chicago residents descended on a City Council committee today to complain about a slow police response to gun violence that has made them prisoners in their own homes.

  The Police Committee took no action on the proposal by Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th) that would have mandated the temporary re-deployment of officers to her far South Side ward and other high-crime areas.

• Chief of Patrol Eugene Williams responded to the barrage of complaints with the same claim Deputy Police Supt. Dan Dugan made to aldermen last spring: No police cars are available to respond when South Chicago residents call 911, in part, because they call for too many non-emergencies.

  “We have to stop dispatching so many calls to police officers on the street. We are one of the few — probably the only major city — that responds 60-plus percent of the time when someone picks up the phone and says, ‘I want the police,’” Williams said.

How many openings have there been in 003 for the past three months? Thirty-plus? How many are they going to post next Thursday? There aren't enough police in the Patrol Division to cover the shortages already. It isn't going to get any better anytime soon. And citizens are noticing.