Few positions in city government carry more importance than the superintendent of police.
Mayor-elect
Rahm Emanuel cannot officially be a part of the process until he is sworn in
May 15, but that doesn’t mean that the position isn’t part of his daily
deliberations. He knows that the next police superintendent is a crucial hire,
and will say quite a bit about how his City Hall will operate.
Emanuel
was straightforward about not keeping former superintendent Jody Weis. He recognized
that while crime statistics dropped under Weis, and there was an evidenced
change in the culture of corruption that had permeated the police force, Weis
had to go. The fact that the rank-and-file officers had no respect for Weis, an
FBI agent who had never worn a Chicago policeman’s uniform, was a big factor.
Police officers rejected his leadership and chafed under his department
realignment.
Mayor
Daley reached out to former superintendent Terry Hilliard to take over the
position on an interim basis, a move that said much more about Daley than about
Emanuel. Daley signaled that he was going to leave the position up to Emanuel,
while having a comfortable face in the post for the next two months
The
mayor-elect will cogitate long and hard, but he knows he has to make sure he
mollifies the 10,000 officers who were almost unanimous in their dislike of
Weis. That will probably mean that someone who is already wearing a Chicago
uniform will get the post.
But we
urge the new mayor to follow what has become his style over the past few
months, and get out and listen to Chicago citizens about this important post.
Yes, it is important to listen to the officers. But is even more important to
listen to the citizens whom those officers swear to “protect and serve.” We
urge him to pay attention to community groups for whom public safety is not
only a job, but a life-and-death matter.
Yes, most
crime is down, particularly violent crime. Some of that can be attributed to
Weis’ efforts over the past three years. Some of it is the result of a
demographic bubble that finds fewer in that criminal class. Some of it,
hopefully, is a result of the community rising up and becoming a bigger part of
the public safety solution.
The next
superintendent will have to realize that his officers, as committed and finely
trained as they maybe, cannot fight crime in our city by themselves, even fully
staffed. They cannot be everywhere and see everything. They cannot be an
effective deterrent if the community they are policing and protecting doesn’t
trust them. Rebuilding that trust is probably the top job for the next
superintendent – beyond adding officers or changing deployment. If citizens
don’t trust they police, don’t think of the police as allies in the fight
against crime, and don’t feel that police are there to “protect and serve,”
crime might actually go down, but citizens won’t feel safe. If they don’t feel
safe, they won’t
want to go shopping in those neighborhoods, or send their children to school in
those neighborhoods and businesses won’t want to locate in those neighborhoods
and there won’t be any jobs in those neighborhoods.
Emanuel
has been seeking out private citizens. He has formed transition panels and
committees that promise to make a quality and diverse Chicago government, one
that will live within its means but still provide quality services to its
citizens.
He seems
to be doing all the right things and he has stressed that he wants Chicago
citizens to not only feel safe, but also be safe. His choice of a police
superintendent should reflect that.
Copyright
2011 Chicago Defender
