(The Center Square) – While Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson claims his work in public safety has been “tremendous” so far, police officials claim he is not doing enough to keep officers safe.
Chicago police statistics show that carjackings are up 112% from last year, robberies are up 19% from last year and thefts are up 11%.
When asked earlier this month how he would characterize his progress in public safety, Johnson said he has worked with others to address issues and said their work is already paying dividends.
“Some of the trends that we are witnessing, the number of trends that we have intercepted over the course of these first 12 weeks, has been tremendous,” Johnson said. “That’s because there has been a real strategic effort on the part of my administration to coordinate with civic leaders, community-based organizations, again with city departments. We are seeing some of the fruit of that labor.”
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara said the city has not paid enough attention to his concerns about officer safety involving migrants housed at police stations.
“This process needs to stop. All of these migrants need to be sent and housed somewhere else, other than police stations. It is an overcrowded, safety, and not to mention biohazard issue for our membership,” Catanzara said. “Nobody seems to think this is a workplace concern, but we are going to keep exploring every avenue possible to force the city if we have to stop this practice.”
Thousands of migrant families have arrived in Chicago over the past year. City officials have placed many in police stations, YMCAs and Daley College. Recently, Johnson said the city is looking at other suburban areas to help with housing migrants.
