Police Department

Our police department is currently acting like the federal government. We have always been a believer that the smaller the group you try to control, the easier it is to manage that group. We are a believer in state's rights over federal rights. It is much easier to control a state than the federal government. Just like it is much easier to manage a county than a state. (Although Toddler Stroger and his ilk are finding great ways of fucking that up too.) Recently, our federal government has gone through a phase of siphoning power and micromanaging the country. What the federal government is going to find out is that they are not going to be able to provide the services they promised and corruption will be harder to find. Our police department is going through that same phase.

Numerous officers are being ripped out of their districts time and again to some citywide unit, stripping district patrol of their much needed resources that are used to handle their standard workload. Orders, for the most part, are not being given by commanders, but by those at headquarters using computer systems that tell you where crime is going to occur. As commentors have stated, there are cars being detailed to locations east at the behest of certain brass from headquarters, not from the commander.

That power grab by headquarters is killing the ability of the Chicago Police Department to effectively answer calls for service and proactively patrol neighborhoods. If the Chicago Police Department and the city of Chicago hired to replace their losses at the district level, we would not be in as bad of a position as we are currently in. However, even though history is not on their side, our government and police department are moving forward with their plans to centralize their power.