Trouble brews in Chicago PD

This link refers to an article in the Chicago Sun Times entitled Mr Popularity will have big shoes to fill

 http://tinyurl.com/5u7j44r.

 

The article refers to the current head of Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weiss.  Supt Weiss is famous for two reasons.  First, he is only the second Supt to be appointed as head of Chicago PD who is not a Chicago officer and secondly, stories of his unpopularity with his troops are manifest. There are many blogs and SM commentaries on the actions of Supt Weiss and how the officers dislike his methods.

 

However, there is an interesting comparison with the only other external candidate to make it to Supt in charge of Chicago.  OW Wilson was appointed to the post in 1960 after leading the police in Wichita.  To cut a long story short, he was head hunted by the Mayor of the time Richard Daley.  Spookily, the Mayor who appointed Weiss is the son of this Mayor and is also called Mayor Daley.

 

Both Wilson and Weiss were appointed to address issues of corruption, integrity and ethical policing issues. But what perhaps separates the two men is their credibility.  Wilson had been a police chief in two other forces prior to Chicago and had spent time as an academic ensuring that police recruiting and studying standards were improved.  He was a creative and innovative man and was willing to try out new ideas, some of which were developed by his mentor August Vollmer, himself a former police chief and academic.  In order to ensure that he was able to gain speedy results, Wilson established a small network of trusted people to get to the root causes of the corruption.  Amongst these was Prof Herman Goldstein the creator of Problem Oriented Policing.

 

Wilson displayed great leadership and dealt with issues that threatened not only Chicago, but also the USA as a nation.  His dealings with Martin Luther King area an example of this.  But Wilson always had time for the troops.  He would often call patrol officers to his office and ask them how things were going.  He would listen, not something that police leaders are renowned for.

 

Supt Weiss on the other hand is a former FBI agent.  The fact that he is not a sworn officer appears to have upset police officers, especially when he attended an even wearing uniform.  He has used unusual tactics when dealing with the Chicago gang culture, luring them to a meeting and then trying to negotiate with them  Hi tactics for dealing with the alleged brutality of Chicago police have also been criticised.  And yet this newspaper article gives Supt Weiss a fair hearing commenting on a number of his successes.

However, Weiss seems to be short of people to defend him and all four candidates for the role of Mayor of Chicago seem bent on removing him.  I wonder whether this is politicisation in order to gain votes or do the Mayors have hard and fast evidence that they can provide a suitable Chief who is able to deal with the multitude of issues that beset Chicago Police.

Perhaps a bigger question will be is this a lesson that we in the UK should learn from as we head towards elected commissioners?

One thing is for sure.  Anyone who is willing to tackle poor standards of policing in any city is deserving of some credit. How many of us would be willing to take up that challenge knowing that we would not have the support of the rank and file no matter what we did?  I for one take my hat off to Supt Weiss and would wish him well for the future.