Police District Lines Need to be Redrawn

We are thrilled to hear that new Chicago Police Chief Jody Weis believes the department is finally due for redrawing district and beat lines citywide – ie. moving the officers where they are needed.

He also acknowledged publicly that the 25 years since the last redeployment is a long time. (see Sun Times January 10). In the first few weeks of the New Year, 4 people were killed in Logan Square. LSNA and community residents and institutions, particularly schools, are doing what we can.Walking school buses, block club organizing, parent patrols and more, are increasingly on our agenda. But as we’ve worked closely with schools and residents in Logan Square to make children safer, we’ve also been clear that the police in our area are stretched very thin.

The Grand-Central Police 25th District  that serves from west Logan Square to the city limits is overburdened and understaffed.The 25th district, with 212,000 residents, is the second biggest in the city. Its staffing is inequitable, unjust and potentially a civil rights issue. For example, 25th District has only 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, compared to 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents for 23rd District, which serves the lakefront Lakeview neighborhood and its surroundings. Put another way, Grand-Central has 666 people per officer, compared to 393 for Lakeview. This is not because Lakeview is more dangerous. On the contrary, in 2006, (the most recent year with complete statistics,) there were only 14 violent crimes per officer in the Lakeview district, compared to 30 per officer in Grand-Central. As rising home values have pushed families (and some gangs) west, the population in Grand-Central has risen while that in Lakeview has declined. Interestingly enough,the 8th District, Chicago’s most populous district, which serves the southwest side of Chicago, is even more unfairly served than Grand-Central, with 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents and 35 violent crimes per officer. Given the rash of killings of CPS students last year, including that of Schanna Gayden at a school playground on the 25th District eastern border, we would only like to add the following: the 25th District has 48 public schools (and 319 officers) while the 23rd District has 3 (and 250 officers).Mr. Weis, we ask you.Is this fair, just, reasonable or logical? No. Food for thought and action? Absolutely.