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The Chicago Sun-Times reported this week that 18 police officers would have been moved to Austin under a plan developed under former Police Superintendent Jody Weis.
The 2010 manpower plan – which appears to have been scrapped by his successor, Garry McCarthy – began with a study of 911 calls but expanded to include other information on crime trends.
In all, the plan would have shifted 300 patrol officers from 11 districts to the remaining 14 districts. The study also found that those 11 districts could still stand to lose another 60 officers, Weis told Sun-Times reporter Frank Main.
In the 15th Austin District, seven officers would have been added, while in the 11th Harrison District, 13 more officers were needed. And in the nearby 25th Grand-Central District, 66 additional officers were called for under the Weis plan.
In the past, patrol officers were reallocated based on “gut feelings” of their supervisors, Weis said in a recent interview with the Sun-Times. Chicago hasn’t conducted a comprehensive analysis of where patrol cops should be deployed in at least 30 years, he said.
“We were fighting with a Cold War battle plan in an al-Qaeda age,” Weis said.
To read the rest of the Sun-Times story and see a map of all 25 police districts, click here.