Chicago Police Dept is 2,300 officers below its authorized strength

[williepotatoes]

Originally Posted by prairiestate

What if we get rid of the patronage employees, cancel all the no bid contracts and generally clean up city government? I bet that would do wonders for city finances!

The city of Chicago has a revenue to expenditure problem that won't be solved with nickels. Since 2007, revenues have plummeted and there is no reason to believe that they will improve soon.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by MysteryScience

That information is kind of misleading. LA is policed by two departments, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Together they have around 19,000 officers, compared to Chicago's 13,000.

We do have the Cook County Sheriff as well. There is not nearly as much overlap between Cook County Sheriff duties and CPD as there is between the LAPD and LACSD, but Cook County jail is in Chicago, Cook County Sheriffs handle things like evictions, etc, so there is definitely some use of Sheriff resources in keeping order in the City of Chicago.

[Feeling Brackish]

Originally Posted by Broadrippleguy

That explains the crime in Chicago then. Not enough cops=crime is King.

Go read some statistics please. Crime is down in most categories from the last several years, and has been way down for many years since the highs seen in the 90s.