Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson announced Sunday that the department has added 108 new officers and five new patrol vehicle equipped with license plate reading technology aimed at stopping carjackings and recovering stolen vehicles.
The new officers are being deployed to their first district assignments after leaving CPD’s training academy, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The new hires are part of an ongoing plan to grow the department by nearly 1,000 officers. Roughly two-thirds of the newly assigned officers identify as minority.
The department also expanded license plate reading technology to a handful of new patrol vehicles, the mayor’s office said. The expansion builds on a program launched last year that supports the newly-formed local, state and federal Vehicular Hijacking Task Force. CPD has made over 20 percent more arrests for vehicular hijacking this year.
On Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that 23-year-old Earrious Moore had been hit with a federal attempted carjacking charge following a Thursday evening crime spree through the Near North Side during which authorities say he shot three people and hijacked several vehicles.
“Our officers are doing incredible work to build better relationships with residents and improve public safety all across the city, and we are going to continue to support them,” Emanuel said in a statement. “Today we are putting more officers on the street, and we are ensuring they have the best technology, the best tools and the best training so they can protect our communities.”
Since the mayor and the department launched the current hiring plan, CPD has had a net increase of 1,037 sworn personnel compared to last January, including accounting for all retirements, attrition and promotions that happened since then, the mayor’s office said. The city is on track to meet the mayor’s goal of hiring more than 1,000 sworn personnel by the end of the year.
The new officers will benefit from the new in-service training requirement, which begins with 16 hours of mandatory training and requires all department members to take 40 hours of continuing education annually by 2021, the mayor’s office said. As part of the plan’s implementation, new officers will be deployed to districts each month into 2019.
Local
The districts receiving new personnel include:
- Central: 8 new officers
- Wentworth: 15 new officers
- South Chicago: 15 new officers
- Gresham: 10 new officers
- Englewood: 10 new officers
- Chicago Lawn: 12 new officers
- Harrison: 12 new officers
- Near West: 8 new officers
- Near North: 8 new officers
- Town Hall: 10 new officers
The next police entry exam is scheduled for May 5 at McCormick Place, 2301 S. King Drive.
