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Top cop 'nervous' about likely retirement surge
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CHICAGO (STNG) -- Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said Friday he is "extremely nervous" that a wave of police retirements next year -- after an arbitrator rules on the new police contract -- will stretch a burgeoning manpower shortage beyond levels he considers safe.
Roughly 1,000 officers are eligible to retire now that Mayor Daley has promised to extend premium health benefits to officers who call it quits at 55. But many are waiting until the contract is settled in hopes that a raise will lock in a higher rate of retirement pay.
The Police Department has 600 sworn vacancies and is 2,000 officers short of authorized strength.
After hiring only 46 police officers this year, Daley's 2010 budget uses federal stimulus funds to add just 86 officers, 30 of them for the CTA.
That's nowhere near enough hiring to solve the manpower shortage that Weis fears is about to get dramatically worse.
"I am extremely nervous about the number of officers who may choose to leave, based upon the fact that the contract may be signed in 2010," Weis told aldermen at a City Council budget hearing.
"There's conceivably 1,000 officers who could leave. ... We have to be prepared for that type of loss. ... We will work closely with Budget to make sure our hiring plan does not leave us too stripped to provide an effective police force for the city."
Weis is not the only one who's nervous about the police manpower shortage. So are aldermen.
"It truly is unacceptable. We want these numbers filled and filled now. We'll find the funding for it. If we have to get rid of some of these other departments ... [or cut their budgets in half] to fill these vacancies, we'll do that," said Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd).
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Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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