In a desperate bid to keep this year’s murder count under 800, CPD brass plans to have hijacking, gang, and murder cops sit on street corners

 Chicago Police Department leaders this week prepared to order all officers who support detectives and the citywide carjacking teams to sit in patrol cars on street corners in violence-prone neighborhoods as CPD brass desperately tries to keep the city’s homicide total below 800 for the year, according to department communications provided to CWBChicago.

Under the plan, which one commander hoped would be “changed, modified, or rescinded,” all officers assigned to the detective division, including gang investigators, vehicular hijacking investigators, and video evidence specialists, will be required to wear their uniforms and “sit in a box” between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m.

Sitting in a “box” is CPD slang for being assigned to sit in a car at a fixed position in a high-crime area. It’s also known as “scarecrow policing.”

“Our chain of command did not come up with this,” one supervisor wrote. “This is coming from the superintendent.” A second source said the order came from CPD’s second-in-command, First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter.

The plan would bring violent crime investigations to a near-halt, the second source said, because the cops who do much of the leg work to support detectives that investigate murders, shootings, carjackings, and other crimes will be sitting in cars on the streets.

Read more: https://cwbchicago.com/2021/10/in-a-desperate-bid-to-keep-this-years-murder-count-under-800-cpd-brass-plans-to-have-hijacking-gang-and-murder-cops-sit-on-street-corners.html