Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis told the City Council this week that he would “reallocate” police resources by the end of this year from lower crime districts to those that need more officers. Testifying at council budget hearings, Weis vowed to finally deliver on a promise made and broken by at least four of his predecessors, reports the city’s Sun-Times. He’s not calling it beat or district realignment, which would entail a redrawing of the boundaries of the 281 police beats to coincide with crime and population changes. That will have to wait until “Phase 2”– after ward boundaries are redrawn, the superintendent said.
But two years into a hiring slowdown that has left the Chicago Police Department more than 2,300 officers a day short of authorized strength, Weis is prepared to take decisive action. “We anticipate in the very near future of having a resource re-allocation that will better balance the workload of our officers throughout the entire city. We will re-allocate our resources to address where the crimes actually are,” Weis said. “I know I’ve talked about this for two years. We will deliver it in 2010.”