Police District Lines Need to be Redrawn

e 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 District 25 that serves from west Logan Square to the city limits is overburdened and understaffed.

The 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, District 25 has only 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, compared to 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents for District 23, 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, District 8, 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 District 25’s eastern border, we would only like to add the following:

District 25 has 48 public schools (and 319 officers) while District 23 has 3 (and 250 officers).

Mr. Weis, we ask you.

Is this fair, just, reasonable or logical?

No.

Food for thought and action?

Absolutely.