The Chicago Police Department plans to add 970 new police positions over the next two years, officials told the Associated Press Tuesday. The city of Chicago has long seen higher than usual levels of violence and homicides, with violence worsening compared to recent years so far in 2016.
CPD spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told the Associated Press that the nearly 1,000 new positions will be broken down between "516 new officers, 92 field-training officers, 200 detectives, 112 sergeants, and 50 lieutenants." These new hires will hire join the existing 12,000 members of the Chicago police force.
The Associated Press noted that the announcement of the new hires raises questions about how the already financially burdened city will foot the bill for almost 1,000 new police staff. In the past, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has opted to pay police staff overtime fees instead of adding to the existing police force, a strategy which has cost around $100 million a year, according to the Associated Press.
Chicago has been under intense national scrutiny for not only the number of homicides it has seen so far in 2016 (more than 500, and on pace to exceed 600, according to the Associated Press) but also for the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014.
After video of the shooting was released, Emanuel, former police chief Garry McCarthy, and the entire police force were subject to local and national outrage. Throughout recent months, police have been unable to quell the increased violence the city has seen.
