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The Chicago Tribune reported today that Austin will be among the West and South Side neighborhoods to get more officers on the street.
For at least a 90-day period beginning Sunday, 400 officers will be transferred to some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods, the Tribune reports: the Grand Crossing, South Chicago, Calumet, Gresham, Englewood and Chicago Lawn districts on the South Side and the Harrison and Austin districts on the West Side.
The other 100 will be assigned to deputy chiefs in different parts of the city and respond to crime hot spots. They will fill the void for the Mobile Strike Force and Targeted Response Unit, which both would be all but left empty as part of the plan, officials told the Tribune.
A spokesperson for Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said his office doesn’t know how many of those officers will be assigned to Austin.
“The Mayor’s effort to deploy 500 CPD officers is a step in the right direction,” Ervin said in a written statement. “We can’t stop there; more resources must be allocated to high-crime areas, like some parts of the 28th Ward, in terms of community policing programs, likes CAPS and CeaseFire. I’ll stand side by side with the mayor to find these resources within the state and federal governments.”
To read the rest of the Tribune’s story, click here.