Police Superintendent Jodi Weis, under fire after the Fraternal Order of Police asked him to resign -- and after he sent a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times defending his tenure -- said he will not step down and will not play into the "media soap opera."
Weis also declined to comment specifically on FOP President Mark Donahue's comments made a day earlier. Donahue said publicly that the entire police leadership backs his call for Weis to resign.
On Wednesday's planned protest, Weis would only say "this is America," and that those people have a right to protest.
Weis, speaking at a scheduled police press conference, reiterated that he believes crime overall is down, and he points out the number of homicides this year is up less than one percent from this point last year.
"That's significant," Weis said, "because we have fewer officers."
Weis also announced the arrest of three suspects involved in three separate (unrelated) crimes, including a man accused of shooting and injuring a CPD Officer last weekend.
Weis also touted the department's efficiency and effectiveness -- "We probably have one of the highest officer to population ratios, we're blessed by that," he said -- and touted the department's flexibility in responding to crime.
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"What we have to do is look for new and better ways to make use of each person," Weis said. "Fro example we took our intelligence cycle, it used by done a week at a time, now we do it every 24 hours so we can make immediate adjustments."
Weis said he does not see any resistance from leadership to these changes or his management.
When asked about morale at the department, Weis said morale is one of those things that's hard to measure, and that people will complain regardless.
"You can give someone a gold brick," Weis said, "and they'll complain it's too heavy. "
