A coalition of alderpersons and community leaders are demanding that the Chicago Police Department create a new Southwest Side police district to speed response times in a Chicago Lawn District that serves the second-largest geographic area with the fewest number of officers per capita.
Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel balanced his first budget in part by eliminating more than 1,400 police vacancies and closing three district police stations: Wood, Belmont and Prairie. That reduced the number of district stations from 25 to 22.
Now, Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) and six of his City Council colleagues are turning up the heat on Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling to cut the Chicago Lawn District in half and build a new police station at a cost of $30 million or more.
Quinn noted the Chicago Lawn District has “just north of 250 officers” serving a population of 250,504 and a “23.1 square-mile” district. That ratio of 10 officers for every 10,000 residents is “the worst in the city,” even though the district is “No. 1” in calls for service and sheer volume of crime, he said.
“Response times are bad, and constituents are frustrated ... The district is too big, too busy, and the good police officers of the 8th District are actually being set up to fail by the city of Chicago,” Quinn said.
Unwilling to wait for the police department to conduct a long-awaited workforce allocation study, Quinn is demanding a new police district on the west end of the current Chicago Lawn District. He notes the current district map dates to 1968 — before he was born.
Quinn has scheduled a news conference for Thursday at the Clearing Library, 6423 W. 63rd Place. He will be joined by fellow Council members Jeylu Gutierrez (14th); Ray Lopez (15th); Stephanie Coleman (16th); David Moore (17th); Derrick Curtis (18th); and Silvana Tabares (23rd).
Representatives of the Clearing Night Force, the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch and the West Lawn Neighborhood Watch groups also are expected to attend.
In 2010, Mayor Richard M. Daley and Ald. Mike Zalewski (23rd) opened a satellite police office in the Clearing library branch; that office closed in 2019, Quinn said.
“If we don’t act now, I believe we’re on borrowed time based on the metrics of crime being what it is in the 8th District today and us not having the officers. We’re talking about taxpayers paying their fair share and getting nothing in return,” he said.
A source with knowledge of the district’s operations credited the alderpersons for starting a conversation about allocating police resources but questioned how the plan would meet the goal of bolstering Southwest Side staffing.
“On paper, I think it’s a great idea,” the source said of creating the new district. “Logistically, I don’t think it’s the best option because of the front-end cost of building a new station [and] staffing it.
“When you’re opening up a new building, you’re going to have a new commander, a new captain, new command staff, officers. There’s not enough to go around as it is,” the source said.
Allocating more officers to the Chicago Lawn District would be the best and most streamlined option, the source said.
The sprawling district has the largest population, the source noted, but it has less manpower than six of the 21 other districts across the city, according to data maintained by the city’s inspector general’s office.
The Chicago Lawn District saw a 26% increase in crime last year, rising sharper than the citywide average, according to crime statistics maintained by the police department. Murders in the district jumped 39% and shootings climbed 3%, bucking an overall trend that saw those key markers of violence drop significantly.
Spokespeople for the police department didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry about the alderpersons’ plan.
Lopez noted that the neighboring Englewood Police District is “one-fifth the size” of Chicago Lawn and has 43 officers for every 10,000 residents.
“What we are seeing is an underpolicing strategy that is endangering the lives of everybody who lives in the district,” Lopez said. “We need a functional district that allows us to tighten the net on catching these criminals, especially in areas where we have seen the drag racing, the street takeovers and a lot of the other incidents on the rise in the district.”
An Archer Heights resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said she “calls 911 all the time ... They don’t have enough officers. Response times over here for the drag racers, sometimes, is 15 or 20 minutes.”
Every time the Chicago Lawn District “goes into a backlog” of 911 calls, “That is a victim who is not getting help. In a modern city, there is no excuse for that,” Tabares said.
