Chicago Police Department said at the 19th District CAPS meeting June 4 that area residents could expect high visibility from CPD over the coming summer, but those in attendance still questioned why the district is still losing a large percentage of its officers overall, even taking Ald. James Cappleman to task for not doing more to raise the issue with city officials.
"Robberies and burglaries remain our district's and my number one concern—our robberies are going down and so are burglaries," said District Commander Elias Voulgaris, adding that he attributed the reduction to high community awareness and changed tactics from his officers. He said that residents and visitor can expect a heightened police presence over the summer months, especially during Pride Weekend.
Community Policing Sergeant Jason Clark read a number of statistics that overall suggested an improvement in safety in the district from the same period last year. But an audience member questioned the integrity of Clark's numbers, given a June 2014 Chicago Magazine article that suggested CPD is "washing" its crime numbers, that is, underreporting them. The article, for example, looks at the peculiarities of CPD's CompStat reporting system championed by Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and says that the numbers, thanks to a number of reporting peculiarities, don't match those figures CPD reports to the FBI. It further illustrates a culture wherein CPD officers are under pressure from their superiors to undercount criminal incidents in the city.
Clark said that he had seen the article, but added that, were he "washing" numbers, he did a poor job of it last year, when robberies were high.
"I'm just giving you the numbers that I pull," Clark answered. "These are the numbers that I get in. I read the article, I know the article … [but] the numbers are the numbers. It does me no good to wash numbers."
Discussion turned to staffing at the district headquarters, which has been a contentious issue for Voulgaris. He said that retirement and attrition continue to be a problem, and that retaining officers who want to work nights is difficult. In the meantime, he said, "We're trying to do more with the officers we have [and] we have beefed up the entertainment area team."
Cappleman, emphasizing that he too would like to see the staffing increase, said that about 65% of the city's budget goes to public safety, so many city officials are mainly concerned with improving safety figures and are likely to be looking for interventions besides increasing staffing. "We're going to have to work smarter," he added.
One audience member said that such a plan was not fair to officers already working in the district, while another told Cappleman, "Go to McCarthy. Go to the Mayor. If you won't, who will?"
But Cappleman said merely pleading about the staffing issues to City Hall was ultimately "magical thinking."
Voulgaris also updated the audience on two sexual assaults that were reported recently. The first was reported to have happened in the 3500 block of North Clark Street May 25, Voulgaris said that the victim has recanted their story and the case is now closed, however. Another attack was reported after a woman was assaulted after being thrown into a men's bathroom stall June 1 at The Irish Oak, 3511 N. Clark St. Voulgaris said that the bar was cooperating with the investigation and emphasized that the incident was an isolated one.
Voulgaris added that residents and visitors should be sure to leave their cars locked on the Lakefront and in other locations in the area, as police have seen an uptick in thefts from autos.
Officials also said security at ATMs has been an issue as well; one perpetrator waited by cash machines to see whether people waited for the machine to fully reset itself for the next customer. If they didn't, he would launch an additional transaction on the person's account, without the machine asking for a PIN a second time.
View 19th Police District Reported Incidents May 4, 2014-June 4, 2014. Figures reported by CPD at June 4, 2014 CAPS meeting at the link:
www.windycitymediagroup.com/pdf/crimestats.pdf .
