City: New hires in '11 won't make up for departing cops

After touting for weeks the planned hiring of 200 Chicago police officers next year, the Daley administration admitted today that the new cops won't even make up for the number of officers who will depart in 2011.

The city will have about 950 vacant police officer positions at the end of this year, said Gene Munin, the city's budget director. Although the city plans to hire 200 officers next year, it projects that 300 will leave the force.

Munin later conceded that the projection of 300 departures was not in keeping with historical patterns. Typically, about 450 officers retire or leave the force for other reasons each year, he said.

If the city has more money than expected available next year, it could hire more officers, Munin said.

"Everybody in the city would like to have more police officers," Munin told aldermen at a City Council Finance Committee meeting. "The question is not, what do we want? The question is, what can we afford?"

Munin addressed the issue as aldermen discussed asking voters in the Feb. 22 city election whether the city should fill all police officer positions in the budget. A decision on whether to do that was put off.

At an afternoon news conference to discuss a crime reduction strategy, police Superintendent Jody Weis responded with skepticism on whether budget problems would improve enough to clear the way for hiring more cops.

"You're not going to find a police chief in the United States who doesn't want all of his vacancies filled," Weis said. "But we also have to look into the question how are we going to pay for it? If the City Council can develop a way in which we can fund that, I'll welcome those officers with open arms."

Weis again touted various crime-fighting strategies and training he's implemented that he credits with helping reduce violent crime in the face of the manpower shortage.

Weis, joined by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and several other state and federal officials, announced the results of a fourth weekend crackdown in high-crime districts on the South and Southwest sides.

Authorities arrested 155 people, returned 14 parolees to prison for violations, seized 12 guns and discovered that five sex offenders weren't living at their registered addresses as required.

-- Hal Dardick and William Lee

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