How To Solve Chicago Police Officer Shortage

As we've been reporting, the Chicago Police Department is facing a 2,300 daily shortage of the number of police officers needed to properly man the Police Department.  This problem has been going on for a long time.  According to the FBI, two of the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods are in the City of Chicago.  One of the proposals for solving the shortage is to lower the requirements for becoming a Chicago Police officer.  Currently, applicants must be between 21 and 40 years old and have completed at least 60 credit hours at an accredited college or university or served at least 4 years of active duty in the United States military.  One proposal being floated is to eliminate the education requirement for applicants.  Another possible solution is to offer written exams for applicants more often.  Most people would be surprised to find out that the last time a written exam was offered was in November of 2006.  That's over 4 years ago!  The City is looking at different ways of offering written exams more often, but the shortage problem cannot even begin to be solved unless written exams are offered.  But with the current budget problems being faced by the city, the money is not there to set up a more frequent and streamlined exam process which means that the officer shortage problem cannot even begin to be addressed.

The officer shortage problem in Chicago deserves much more media attention and scrutiny.  The upcoming mayoral election should afford the public an opportunity to see how the candidates propose to address this vexing problem.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.