‘Mass exodus’ of Chicago cops from the force slows, Supt. Larry Snelling tells City Council

The “mass exodus” that has left Chicago with 1,627 fewer police officers than it had in January 2019 is slowing, newly appointed Supt. Larry Snelling said Tuesday, insisting that his department can keep pace with attrition and promotions in 2024.

Defending the Chicago Police Department’s proposed $2 billion spending plan at his first budget hearing, Snelling sought to reassure City Council members the shortage of officers won’t get worse and might even get better, even after Mayor Brandon Johnson fulfills his promise to promote 100 more detectives and increase the number of sergeants.

“We will not deplete patrol to make promotions to detectives or sergeants,” Snelling told Council members. “As we move bodies in from the academy and we get new officers … trained, then and only then will we know that we can make those incremental promotions so that we don’t deplete patrol.”

The police department has 11,726 sworn officers. That’s 1,627 fewer officers than it had in January 2019.

In addition, 891 officers are over age 55, and 200 of them have already declared their intention to retire in 2024. Another 1,146 officers are 49 with 20 years of service, which means they’re fast approaching retirement eligibility.

But Bob Landowski, the police department’s director of human resources, said the rate of resignations is slowing. It’s expected to reach 700 this year, compared with 1,078 in 2022 and 973 the year before.

Snelling said there has been a “mass exodus” of officers over the last two or three years, with many officers fleeing Chicago to work for police departments in the suburbs and out of state.

But those days are over, he said.

“Not only have we seen a major slowdown in that, we’re not losing them at the rate that we were. We’re seeing those officers return back to our department,” said Snelling, whose appointment to replace popular interim Supt. Fred Waller was hailed by the police union and the once-demoralized rank and file it represents.

“The increases for pay and the opportunity to be promoted will help with retention,” Snelling said. “There are more opportunities for these individuals to decide to stick around.”

Snelling said he is confident the police department can and will keep pace with the rate of attrition, given that 450 candidates are at the police academy right now, with another class starting in November and plans to churn out 75 recruits a month through 2024.

“To fill the vacancies, we really have to … revamp the way that we’re recruiting right now. Part of that is to start to recruit from communities. This is part of rebuilding the trust and regaining the trust of the community,” Snelling said.

Johnson spent the mayoral campaign distancing himself from his history of supporting the concept of defunding the police and denying that he planned to cut “one penny” from the police department’s $1.94 billion budget.

Johnson’s first budget increases police spending by $91 million to cover the cost of his recent decision to sweeten the last two years of a police contract signed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“This is not my administration pouring more dollars into the police budget. This is about workers getting their raises,” Johnson told reporters days after delivering his budget address.

But Johnson’s decision to create 440 “promotional opportunities” for police officers — with 100 more detectives, 100 more sergeants and 170 more field training officers — nevertheless raised concerns the shortage of officers could get worse, lengthening response times to violent crime.

Police and Fire Committee Chairman Chris Taliaferro (29th) said he knows of one burglary victim in his West Side ward who waited several days for a police response while “a lot” of nonemergency calls wait four or five hours for a response.

He asked Snelling how he plans to reduce response times in the Harrison, Austin and Ogden districts that have “a huge number of calls coming in every single night.”

Snelling talked about his early decision to disband a Community Safety Team that once swelled to 625 officers and reassign those 90 officers to areas and districts. He also highlighted the addition of 398 civilian positions to free more officers for street duty and his hope to work with the 911 center to screen “noncriminal” calls.

“If we can start to weed out some of those calls,” Snelling said, “it’ll save our officers some time, and we’ll go to those priority jobs, and we’ll get there quicker.”