Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson had their first televised forum in the leadup to the runoff election, and both candidates were asked a series of questions about public safety in the city.
The two candidates were both asked how they would make the city’s residents feel safer, the type of candidate they’d look toward as a replacement for Supt. David Brown, and how they’d address police staffing issues, accountability and morale.
How Would You Make Chicagoans Feel Safer?
Paul Vallas:
We’re 1700 officers down from 2019 when the mayor took office. Only half the priority 911 calls are being responded to because there aren’t police cars available. We need to return to community-based policing.
We need to have beat integrity. We also need to return to community-based policing on CTA platforms and the CTA stations and the trains and have the presence of police officers.
The first thing you do is you make the type of leadership changes and changes and scheduling and changes of management, of personnel that do not cause 1,000 police officers to leave every year. If you do that, there are hundreds of police officers who will in fact return those who have retired will come out of retirement, those who have transferred to other police districts will return, so you can very quickly begin to rebuild.
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Brandon Johnson:
Yeah, look, it's a serious problem. We're all experiencing this problem throughout the city of Chicago. I'm raising a family on the west side of Chicago, a wife and I and our three children. We love the west side of the city of Chicago, the Austin neighborhood, but it is unfortunately a disinvested community and one of the more violent neighborhoods in the city and that's why my public safety plan is an investment plan.
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We have to make sure that we are strengthening the red flag laws so that individuals who are holding guns and receiving guns and they don't have guns, all balances supported by somewhere to sit in cane equipment that is trying to manufacture and put more guns on the street.
I'm working hard to keep guns off the street. The public safety plan that I have is going to promote training 20 More detectives so we can actually solve crime and alleviate the pressure from law enforcement having to behave that social workers, counselors and mayors therapists that's how we support police officers and make sure we create a working environment where people actually want to serve.
Johnson was also asked to respond to Vallas’ plan to bring back retired officers:
This is on retired officers returning - If they're being asked to do someone else's job, what incentive do they have to come back and do the job that they were frustrated doing in the first place? That's why we have to be smart about policing, having police officers respond to mental health crises and marital disputes that that is unfair. This is why I support officers that have their ability to actually do their job.
Who’s On Your Short-List to Replace Chicago Police Supt. David Brown?
Brandon Johnson:
My father is a public employee retired, a carpenter, a pastor and he raised all 10 of us in a house with one bathroom and here's what he taught us that leadership you have to have compassion. Be collaborative. It was on the shortlist.
Well, I'm looking for someone who possesses those qualities. And they have to be tethered to the city of Chicago. But we're going to search all the way to make sure we have the right person that reflects the values of the city of Chicago, someone who was prepared to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago,
I'm gonna collaborator, right? I wouldn't be here yet. Here I am. Right. And so yes, we're having conversations. But as we continue to build our coalition to speak to people around the city, we'll get to that point. And it's not just for someone as a superintendent, you know, someone to run all of our agencies that reflect the values of the city of Chicago. If you are competent, collaborative and compassionate.
Paul Vallas:
I’ve talked to a number of offices, along with a number of commanders. It’s not only replacing or finding the superintendent from within, and I will promote only a superintendent in an interim position, because as mayor you have to go through a process from within, but the first deputy too. I’ll replace a lot of the commanders who have been promoted, not based on their time and their experience.
I have talked to specific officers in senior levels of responsibility. Take this to the bank: I will promote all the officers from within, both the interim superintendent, the first deputy, the chief of patrol, and evaluate who’s been promoted to higher levels.
How Would Your Administration Work to Hold Police Accountable?
Paul Vallas:
The first step toward holding police accountable is by promoting people in positions of leadership who have the respect of the rank-and-file and who know what accountability is.
There are individuals in this CPD who have that experience. Second, one of the reasons that the police are not closing cases is because there simply aren’t enough of them. They are 1,700 officers down. They have one-sixth the number of detectives that they have in New York, and if you think just promoting 200 is going to solve their problem, because there’s not only that clearance rate, there’s clearance rates on murder, which is 1-in-6. The clearance rate on shootings is 5%. Clearance rates on other violent crime is less than 5%. So yo’uve got to get serious about having the officers who can work the cases, and you’ve got to get serious about protecting witnesses and victims, which is a big obstacle.
If you have even a fundamental knowledge of a police department, that if you reduce the number of officers exiting from 1,000 to the normal level of 300, then you can begin to play catchup.
Brandon Johnson:
This is about being smart. Right? You're my public safety plan lays out why it's important to actually hire and promote two or more detectives, because our clearance rate is abysmal. Absolutely, we have to do that. And we can do that immediately. You know, I live in one of the more tougher neighborhoods in the city of Chicago. It takes 18 months to become a police officer. Under Paul Dallas's plan. The city of Chicago would have to wait two years before they see an officer on the front line. You know, you hold officers accountable. They need to know who their supervisor is, right? We have supervisors who supervise the supervisors, we need consistency. That's what rank and file members are saying. I've been a public school teacher. Imagine if your principal changed every two days. How do you hold people accountable if you don't even know who you're reporting to? And that's what my public safety plan gets it to make sure that we're promoting until one or more detectives and there's some consistency and who they're actually being supervised by.
How Would You Help Elevate Officer Morale?
Brandon Johnson:
The Police Department has said to trust its leadership. And as I said, we're putting police officers and the community and an awful situation in order to prepare trust within our communities. We have to concentrate on making sure that mental health support services are available for the residents of the city of Chicago and mental health support is available for officers who are serving on the front line, very traumatized moment right now that we're all experiencing.
But you also have to make sure that you're listening to the people on the front line. I know what that's like. I got up every single day serving in our public school system. Do the job that you were hired to do and not being asked to do with the job of someone else's.
Paul Vallas:
First of all, by promoting leadership from within who have the support and the respect of the command, of the rank-and-file. Secondly, by putting police on a humane work schedule. Third, by not punishing the police when they are being responsive. Four, By returning to beat-integrity, so that police aren’t being moved around all over the city. Finally, by providing the type of mental health intervention, services that officers need.
Those five things would be transformational. Those five things would encourage hundreds of officers to return, not to mention to slow the exodus of new officers.
