Johnson Announces Major Hiring Plan for CPD
Plan will add 970 sworn members to bolster public safety
CHICAGO – Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced today his plan to increase the number of sworn members over the next two years in an effort to address recent increases in crime and strengthen the Department’s ability to solve criminal cases.
“Since becoming Superintendent my first priority has been to determine how we can best serve this great city, to make our neighborhoods safer and help communities thrive by rebuilding trust,” said Superintendent Johnson. “We have been working to institute a number of sweeping reforms over the past year and the next step is to ensure we have appropriate staffing to execute our crime reduction strategy.”
The plan calls for the hiring of 500 police officers, 200 detectives, 92 field training officers, 112 sergeants, and 50 lieutenants for a total of 970 positions over the next two years – taking CPD’s force from 12,656 today to 13,535 by the end of 2018. These positions will be filled in addition to the existing vacancies.
The hiring plan places a heavy emphasis on the effectiveness of supervision for new officers, as well as the supervision of in-service officers through the promotion of sergeants and lieutenants, to provide valuable guidance to officers on the streets. One of the benefits of this increase in supervisors will be a decreased “span of control” – the ratio of patrol officers to sergeants – allowing for more hands-on guidance and direction in difficult situations.
As the Department implements the hiring plan over the next two years, it is also making an investment in resources to ensure that its training academy facilities and programs support the Superintendent’s vision and strategy.
This announcement comes after a series of reforms put in place by Superintendent Johnson to make neighborhoods safer and rebuild public trust. These include:
- Expanding body-worn cameras to all officers on patrol over the next two years
- De-escalation training that allows officers undergo scenario-based training to practicefor the wide range of situations they face daily
- Completion of Taser training to every officer responding to a service call, providing officers with more options to mitigate crisis situations
- Established the Bureau of Organizational Development within CPD to oversee management of the recommendations by the Police Accountability Task Force and Department of Justice recommendations, as well as training, research and development, and internal audits.
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