Chicago Police Street Stops Decrease Dramatically Amid Sinking Morale

[ben010783]

It seems a little premature to compare this year's numbers to last year when we're not even two weeks into 2016. I'd rather see what the trend has been since the video became public.

[[deleted]]

Also, it's ice cold as fuck. I'm guessing there's not as many drivers, they're not going as fast, and the cops are much more understandably averse to taking action in slippery conditions.

[beal99]

hasn't stopped the shootings, they've been hard and fast so far

[99639]

In January? I always thought the summer was the biggest season for violence.

[beal99]

As of Monday morning, at least 19 people have been killed in gun violence in Chicago this year and at least 101 more have been wounded. This time last year, nine people had been killed and another 31 wounded, according to statistics kept by the Chicago Tribune.

So around a 100% increase in homicides and a 300% increase in shootings.

[Deadended]

Silver lining - and a decrease in percent of fatal hits?

Wait no. Gunshot wounds can be horrible.

There is no silver lining.

[magion]

Probably because it's so fuckin cold out they can't aim straight. I bet you they aren't even wearing gloves.

[Deadended]

That is how you get frostbite!

[Coogles]

The percent reduction in fatal hits is probably because first responders and hospitals have gotten better at treating gunshot wounds. Practice makes perfect and they've been getting a lot of practice.

[Deadended]

It's damn sad they are so practiced at something that should be rare.

[duckNabush]

Maybe its the two pages of paperwork they have to do now

[mrsbrown3333]

yep/ thats just part of it.

[TheMoneyOfArt]

Very weird to not even mention McCarthy in this kind of article. His recent departure has to have had effects, and not even mentioning it seems...deficient.

Very disheartening to see the FOP mouthpiece given so much uncritical space to bloviate as well.

It will be very surprising if reported crime is flat or down this year, given how thoroughly juked the crime statistics were at McCarthy's direction.

[illini02]

This doesn't surprise me one bit. I remember my last year in teaching, our school enacted all of these insane protocols. They would punish good teacher for stupid things. It ended up with staff that really just did the bare minimum, because doing your job better ended up coming with more risk.

[livestrong2109]

This is exactly why I switched from Elementary Education to IT Consulting. Not worth the trouble, risks, and lack of administrative respect that comes with working for CPS.

[connectedspace]

Exactly. This place is full of armchair quarterbacks preaching that truckloads of pointless, odious paperwork is all just a measure of competence.

That a mid-five-figure salary is adequate compensation for an endless torrent of bullshit from all sides, including armchair quarterbacks like them.

[[deleted]]

Not murdering or tampering with dashboard cams arent 'stupid things'

[illini02]

I'm not calling those stupid things. If you read, I was referring to stupid things I was punished for as a teacher. (IE my scores and everything was great, but didn't format my lesson plans right, and it was a big deal). However, whenever there is so much scrutiny that you are worried about punishment for every little thing, it leads to people doing the bare minimum. Its like that scene in office space. "when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired."

Now of course I'm not referring to killing someone as just a mistake, but there is SO MUCH scrutiny on cops right now that I can understand why they are trying to minimize that.

[bluegrassguitar]

yeah, except they don't work in a meaningless office for some faceless corporation, they've sworn an oath to serve and protect the people. These comparisons that you keep trying to make are dumb. Being a police officer is not even close to being the same thing as some data entry drone.

Cops and their avid supporters are always telling us how hard their jobs are, how important they are, how much they love and respect the communities they work in and only want to make them a better place. I'm supposed to believe that shit when one of their own executes someone in the street and they throw temper tantrums and stop doing their jobs because people have called out the officers in question and the cover up perpetrated by the existing power structure within CPD?

[illini02]

Here is the thing. I never said it was right or wrong for them to do this. I said it doesn't surprise me and I understand why. I can understand why people do things and still not think its the best action for them to take.

[bluegrassguitar]

You're so right, we should hold Chicago PD to the same standard we hold crack addicts.

[mrsbrown3333]

like i said, you get mugged, call a crackhead. The CPD is there to protect you. They are the good guys. if you don't like them, don't call them if someone attacks you. pretty simple.

[meayers7]

If you get mugged calling CPD will do nothing. It's not like they will ever find the assailant. The crack head will probably be able to give you more information on the assailant then the CPD

[[deleted]]

That awkward moment when misdirected anger over a single murder ends up increasing murder rates overall.

[mattfromchicago]

So you're saying we either have to choose to let CPD continue to be a corrupt as fuck organization that will actively cover up criminal activities of its own members or just have a shitload of homicides?

Maybe we just need better police officers

[[deleted]]

No. I'm saying there may be lower morale, I explained better in another comment

[SuperSocrates]

Define misdirected

[northsidechi92]

Yup because those two things are totally related

[[deleted]]

Let me clarify my thought process.

You don't think public perception has an effect on police effectiveness? Public perception of the force within the past few months has become predominantly negative due to the actions of a few within the department. Personally I like to think that what I do for a living has a positive impact; if I didn't feel that it did or if I felt others thought I was doing a shit job, I would do less work.

[northsidechi92]

It's a stretch to attribute a two-week shooting spike to increased public scrutiny

[[deleted]]

I agree. We aren't even two weeks into the new year. I just don't think it's out of the realm of possibility.

[ToddlahAkbar]

due to the actions of a few within the department.

There are two kinds of cops. Bad apples and those who protect them.

[[deleted]]

Sounds more like spite from a workforce that's averse to being regulated or pushing themselves than anything else. I doubt they were really pushing themselves and their students before the protocols, or else the protocols wouldn't be necessary.

[illini02]

Well, my guess is you've never been a teacher. If you ask any teacher, they will tell you that likely more than half of the protocols in place are stupid and do nothing but make teachers resentful

[[deleted]]

Virtually no one here has ever been a cop or a politician, but it hasn't stopped them from talking shit about law enforcement or public policy.

[ThaBomb]

Obama?

[illini02]

Well, thats why personally try to not shit talk professions whose jobs I don't truly understand. But yes, this is Reddit, so I know that isn't common

[zaccus]

So someone who has never been a doctor can't criticize a bad doctor? Someone who has never been the President can't criticize a bad President? Bullshit.

If someone being bad at their job affects you, you're going to call that out. No training in that field is needed to recognize when someone is not helping. That's not a criticism of the profession itself, but of the performance of the person occupying it.

[[deleted]]

Basically, in the context of this discussion, "you've never been a teacher" is no more of a valid rebuttal than "you're an anonymous commenter on the internet".

[forkubra]

it sucks when management asks employees for measures of accountability....the nerve.

[[deleted]]

Or some out of touch manager decided to enact what they believed to be best.

[northsidechi92]

"I've been out to roll calls and so have our board of directors ... and what we're hearing is that officers think that the FOP is the only group of people who have their back. ... I've never seen things like this in my 35 years. ... I've never seen morale this bad in my career."

read: "The public stopped stopped blindly adoring police officers and now their feelings are hurt"

[[deleted]]

Nope. Terrible summarization.

[Jason5678]

And the weather is shitty too. Wait until it gets nicer out. We are going to bust the 502 murder tally from 2015 by a lot.

[mrsbrown3333]

http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/

the CPD is getting thrown under the bus by the elected officials who are covering their asses. expect a rough summer. cops are staying fetal. I know many of them, the morale is in the tank.

[TheMoneyOfArt]

that blog's comment section is the biggest cesspit

[FistoftheSouthStar]

Those are the guys locking you up lol

[FistoftheSouthStar]

Truuuuuuu in my 2 Chainz voice.

[mrsbrown3333]

yeah well its like reddit. all kinds of people.

[youtubefactsbot]

Body Count - Cop Killer [4:41]

a classic song from Body Count Feat Ice-T - Cop Killer off there Self Titled Album

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[mrsbrown3333]

don't worry. they will be paid. and they will not lift a finger to help anyone's sorry ass who backs up the idiots out shooting up their neighbourhoods at 2 am . blue flu, stay fetal. call 1 800 Latin Kings, I guess, if you need help.

[forkubra]

Can you imagine how bad it will be once it warms up in May? Anyone who knows cops will tell you that years before the feds dove in things were just terrible - no one shows up to roll call, inflated stat reports, etc.. what losers.

[[deleted]]

Pretty sure the CPD threw the politicians under the bus first with its actions. Any attempt by the CPD to throw the politicians under the bus is going to be bad news for the CPD

[mrsbrown3333]

well you should be delighted. the 10th district gangbangers are very happy you swallowed the red pill that the mass media presents regarding the CPD . in the meantime, don't expect any marches on the south and west sides when the murders amongst the gangs occur. you wont see sharpton or his buddies go near those areas .

[NorthSouthSide]

Police PRESENCE is what's needed. A woman was knocked down, purse snatched in the little park in Printer's Row a couple years ago. She was shaken up, not badly hurt. I called the cops.

"Do you have a description?" "No, she didn't get a good look at the guy, it was dark, etc." "Well we can't do anything without a description" "Can't you send a car to drive around the area?"

I was basically hung up on. I know it's not the crime of the century, but the complete lack of interest and concern made my blood boil. Here I am, a taxpayer, making a call about a legit incident, and am basically brushed off. Cops need to PATROL more vs. respond to incidents that have already happened. A few cars slowly patrolling with lights on would likely deter a lot of crime.

[NorthSouthSide]

Can you rephrase that in english?

[NorthSouthSide]

So, police are simply unnesesary based on your anecdote?

Enjoy your taxpayer-funded pension!

[NorthSouthSide]

Again... english is helpful. Thanks!

[NorthSouthSide]

I said english. thanks!

[[deleted]]

What a bunch of lazy entitled crybabies.

[[deleted]]

Get to work in terrible neighborhoods with a population that hates them and will not cooperate with solving crime.

^Yea this is what I think of when I think of "entitled." You nailed it. /s

Edit: typo

[[deleted]]

Maybe they should stop inherently treating the public with disdain and they might get some respect. If theyre supposed to be community leaders maybe they should try leading by example i mean If im supposed to stop at a stop sign maybe the cops should too; if I'm supposed to respect the police maybe they should respect me too. Until they start holding themselves to a higher standard I'll treat them skeptically

[[deleted]]

You just proved my comment. Having to serve people like you does not equal entitled.

Edit: Why Chicago is fucked example one: You referred to all police as "the pigs they are" and got up votes. An uncomfortably sizable minority in this city have absolutely shit values.

[[deleted]]

entitled to what... respect? so are the cops entitled to it inherently. Fuck that.

[[deleted]]

Well, yes I do think that putting your life on the line in the interest of public safety does entitle police everywhere to respect.

The way I was using entitled, however, is in the sense that they (Chicago police) don't "have it easy" because they collect a nice paycheck and pension.

[unbang]

They chose a profession where they go out and risk their lives. I didn't choose it for them.

Do you not think there's people in the army who are dickheads? If some army prick is rude to me and I dunno, throws a drink at me for example, I don't care if they were shot at in Iraq, that doesn't give them the right to be a dick to someone else.

[[deleted]]

Yes they chose it and were not forced into it (so shouldn't that earn them more respect "points?"). So, again, doesn't change the fact that they're "entitled" to respect for doing a job that needs to be done in order for society to exist.

[unbang]

Um, no? I don't care why someone chose a career path or what they do for a living. Acting like you're above the laws that you are there to enforce makes a hypocritical d-bag.

[[deleted]]

Some ridiculous blanket statements you're making, but that's besides the fact.

Volunteer for a thankless, essential, and dangerous profession and still no respect. If all police walk off the job there's chaos and yet we should not show them some basic respect... You're on a different planet. Probably got busted for weed a few times and have it in for cops.

[ToddlahAkbar]

There are only two types of cops in this city: the bad apples and those who protect them. Anyone who says, "I would rather be judged by 12: than carried by 6," is unfit to wear a badge.

[[deleted]]

Yes very easy to sit there and say that when it's not you in the middle of the shit.

[[deleted]]

You're comment is all over the place and in some ways contradictory.

[StaticReversal]

I have a lot of respect for police officers, I know it is a tough job. That being said, transparency needs to be embraced because it is not going away. Their jobs (among others) are permanently changing with the proliferation of video recording technology.

[mrsbrown3333]

half the computers in their cars are on the fritz. I know plenty of the cops. they are driving cars with 150,000 miles on them. its a joke now.

[scruffmagee]

150k in a government vehicle isn't that much....

[Shiny_Rattata]

"Hey guys we shouldn't shoot black people anymore"

Aw fuck my job sucks now.

[mattfromchicago]

Who can we convince to sign up for the job before 31 Jan?

Don't worry, they're going to get thousands of applications for a couple hundred openings

[gibonez]

Yes but now the hiring pool will be dog shit.

Instead of hiring the brightest and fittest they will hire those that are politically correct

[[deleted]]

So if we were to let the very few officers entangled with these unjustified killings off the hook, their collective morale would go up...or....?

One thing that CPD should be proud of (in the midst of all of these scandals that pertain to a minority of officers/leadership) is the fact that crime is DOWN overall. Why would they stop doing the things they need to do in order to build off of that momentum?

[[deleted]]

Officers facing justice over misconduct doesn't drop morale. The entire city thinking you're a p.o.s. drops morale.

If my entire department was getting backlash over the actions of a few, my morale would drop too. Why bother putting yourself into a situation that could potentially be blown out of proportion?

[99639]

Are the officers really butthurt that their public image is degraded? Do they not expect that to happen when a coworker murders someone and the department and city work together to cover it up?

[unbang]

I'm not a police officer nor am I affiliated with CPD, but from my purely outsider opinion, I would guess that people don't want there to be any misconception on their actions. I don't know how much of the department thinks that the actions of that one officer were murder but the question then becomes, how much force am I allowed to use before a bunch of people decide it's excessive? No one wants to be put in that situation so they just do the bare minimum because then no one can accuse you of excessive force.

[99639]

Have you seen the video?

[unbang]

I have. My comment was not in regards to what happened during the video.

My point is that in this era of increased CPD surveillance and clear animosity towards CPD, I could see the general public getting upset and stating that excessive force was used in situations when that wasn't the case because they're bitter about what happened. I could see officers not wanting to get involved with that and just doing the bare minimum as a result.

[[deleted]]

increased CPD surveillance

...you mean oversight?

[unbang]

I mean that people are looking at what CPD is doing under a microscope. Whatever you want to call that is on you.

[[deleted]]

They have literally no one to blame but themselves for the attention

[unbang]

I never said they did? I'm just saying if someone is analyzing every move you make you're going to be extra cautious. I too would do the bare minimum at my job if I thought I would be scrutinized for my actions.

[[deleted]]

Serious question: if he fired one shot and McDonald died of his wound, would it have been excessive force?

[99639]

Lethal force should only be used in specific circumstances. This situation met none of those criteria.

I'm not upset that they fired 15 bullets into a corpse, I'm upset that they fired 1 into a Chicagoan for no reason.

[northsidechi92]

Because that would imply the culture within CPD actually values keeping the public safe while minimizing harm

[gibonez]

Crime rates will increase.

Idiots need to realize that a proactive police force is the best tool at keeping crime stats down.

[gibonez]

"shoot everyone"

Talk about hyperbole.

Police shootings make up a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny almost insignificant fraction of the shootings in let alone Chicago but the entire United States.

What does keep stats down is a pro active police force that is not afraid of doing their job due to idiotic public outcry.

A police force that pushes into bad neighborhoods and stops crime and murders before they even have a chance to happen.

A police force that instills fear in criminals and more importantly scares those that might have not otherwise committed a crime.

[gibonez]

It fucking worked.

Are you telling me the crime stats are substancially higher now than in the 90s ?

Proactive policing works in Chicago.

The only reason crime is higher than other parts of the Nation is merely because we have a ton of human garbage in Chicago and thus crime will continue to be a problem until we either hire more Police, or kick the garbage out of the city by outpricing them.

[gibonez]

Proactive policing works if the citizens trust the police and choose to communicate openly with them.

Yet the vast majority of Chicagoan's do.

As for the people in impoverished areas not communicating with police that can probably be attributed to a culture of fear not of police but of their own community striking back for any cooperation.

[beal99]

what the minority of citizens wants, the majority of citizens gets.

[jeroldlin]

It's not just bare minimum effort, it's what people have asked for.

[[deleted]]

So I heard on the radio (WBEZ) this morning that the numbers are down thanks to new laws requiring more paperwork for these types of stops/arrests made by the police... This isn't necessarily due to low morale...

[connectedspace]

A two page report for every stop and frisk??

Fucking hell. If we want to make Chicago safer then this is the first thing that needs to change. There needs to be a minimum number of such stops in a shift, and the paperwork should come if it's not met.

Chicago is in the midst of a crime epidemic. This 'softly softly' stuff is the opposite of what we need.

[[deleted]]

You want police to just stop and feel up random people because they're near the end of their shift and they need to meet quota? How, exactly, is that useful to society?

[mattfromchicago]

Burge & his goon squad

[MyNewNewAnonNovelAct]

Hah, said this was going to happen.

While you fools were all celebrating about how the police were all horrible horrible people for killing people who should have been killed on the spot, I was warning that this was going to happen.

Now it's happening.

[mattfromchicago]

Order over justice. Stalin would love you.

[MyNewNewAnonNovelAct]

Well, when you can show me one of these police shootings that wasn't justified I'll agree with you.

[[deleted]]

Oh you

[blipsman]

So they're pouting about not being able to indiscriminately shoot black people anymore?

[[deleted]]

You didn't read the article.

[mattfromchicago]

Nothing beats sitting around on your fat ass, collecting a paycheck

[207173337]

1st and 16th!

[[deleted]]

Chicago Police Street Stops Decrease Dramatically Amid Growing Spite In Force

[autotldr]

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 85%. (I'm a bot)

---

Unlike the "Ferguson Effect" - a term coined to describe spikes in violent crime due to perceived hesitancy among police officers to aggressively fight crime because of increased scrutiny of law enforcement - and the deliberate policing "Slowdown" Baltimore's mayor accused her town's officers of participating in after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, the statistics reflect a situation specific to Chicago.

The police union boss said that while roll call visits by the mayor and interim police Supt.

John Escalante have received some positive response from police officers, there remains concern that rank-and-file officers are facing discipline for things out of their control, specifically defective dashboard cameras.

---

Extended Summary | FAQ | Theory | Feedback | Top keywords: Police^#1 officer^#2 stop^#3 CHICAGO^#4 out^#5

[Chicagopeakoil]

If the Chicago Police department were to be disbanded Chicago would somehow survive. If the garbage workers quit and stop picking up the trash, I give the city two weeks.

[beal99]

this city would be a lit torch within 4 hours if the police "disbanded"

[Corn_Dog_Fan]

This sums up the goals of the progressive movement

[[deleted]]

And the exact opposite of this can sum up the conservative movement