Emanuel Moves 500 Police Officers to High-Crime Areas

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is re-deploying 500 officers to police beats around the city, but some officials say the plan doesn't satisfy Emanuel's campaign promise to put 1,000 officers on the streets.

Emanuel said at a Tuesday news conference that he is putting 500 existing Chicago police officers on beats. He said that would help build relations with communities and eventually drop crime. The officers are already on the street, but don't necessarily have specific beats. Emanuel called it a down payment on his campaign promise to add 1,000 officers to beats.

"I can wait to find the resources, or I can basically say, 'Are we most efficient in applying our officers to where crime is,'" he said.

But Alderman LaTasha Thomas said she was expecting 1,000 new officers, not the re-deployment of officers already on the force.

"They're taking a step, but this is not the thousand to me," Thomas said.

The head of the police union, Michael Shields, said in a statement, "The department has taken hundreds of highly-skilled street officers and transformed them overnight into hundreds of highly-skilled beat officers. What's the difference?"

Emanuel said some of the cops will be deployed to high crime areas.

(Photo by Tony Arnold/IPR)