More Clues to Manpower Shortage

Another hint of the future:

• You expect when police promise to follow-up on a case they actually will. But apparently, that doesn't always happen in Chicago. In Lakeview, five young women woke up on September 26th to find someone had cut a screen in their apartment and robbed them while they slept.
  
  
• But they say 10 days went by and no detective ever called them, even though they called again to say they had information about the suspect.
  
  
• Police spokesperson Roderick Drew says no fingerprints were found at the scene and because the Red Line station is under construction, there are no security cameras. He couldn't comment on the potential for bus cameras.
  
  Drew was asked about the 10-day response and if detectives have too many cases on their hands. He says no one will ever hear him or anyone else in the department say detectives have too much work.
  
  But in a statement, he said, "We're like any other industry, we have to make do with the resources on hand. Ideally the call would have been made sooner, if for no other reason but to check in and introduce themselves to the victim(s). But that does not mean the detectives care any less about the incident because no one was hurt."

Gee, do you think maybe the D-Unit is shorthanded? Do you think the entire Department is shorthanded? We've touched on this issue maybe a million times. Our readers have been warning everyone that the shortfalls are going to become evident in different ways for years now - a falling clearance rate, longer response times, ticket fall offs (not entirely because of a slowdown, but because everyone is humping from job to job all night), poor execution of technology, bullshit missions, a non-existent promotional track, RAP after RAP after RAP, etc.

The signs are all there - we've reached the tipping point and the abyss looms.