Chicago Citizen’s Police Academy (CCPA): Day 2

Chicago Citizen’s Police Academy (CCPA): Day 2

During this week’s class, We discussed a wide variety of topics.  This class atmosphere was out of the norm, as a captain of the CPD was wounded while serving an arrest warrant.  First hand, I saw the utmost care and concern from the officers in class for their fallen comrade, but they remained focused and upbeat!

We discussed the one of the biggest units, the Bureau of Organized Crime division, who works closely with the Gang, Narcotics, and several related divisions.  The biggest discussion of the night was regarding the Vice Control Division, which also handles business license investigations, i.e the illegal sales of alcohol and tobacco to minors (S.A.M). 

Other key points of this class discussion were:
-Each business is obligated by law to report illegal activities/crime around there place of business.
-The federal government has a standard formula of how to disperse recovered asset/drug money.
-When you call 911, it goes to the Office of Emergency Mgmt., then its routed to the callers district’s operator,
then to a dispatcher, where calls are routed in order of importance.
-Roughly 18 officers are needed to conduct prostitution stings.
-1^st fine for selling unstamped cigarettes is $1,000, 2^nd offense: $5,000.
-Loose cigarettes aka “loosies” and “loose squares” are the new “dope” spots.
-The superintendent, Gary McCarthy, has great support and positive backing from many officers of the CPD.
-The 18^th district has over 900 liquor licenses.
-One of the greatest points that stuck out was the impact of violence on non-insured victims, which ultimately the tax payers eat the cost of hospitalization, after care, and rehabilitation.

 

FYI: Did you know: The community is the police dept. biggest asset!  Until next time……Thanks for reading!

Chicago Citizen’s Police Academy (CCPA): Day 1

The Chicago Citizen’s Police Academy (CCPA) is a 9 week, 31.5 hr. course designed to increase the lines of communication and awareness between the community and the Chicago Police Department (CPD).  Our first meeting consisted of 20-25 citizens, 5 visiting officers from California, and the CPD officers heading the course.

During this time, we discussed course outlines that will include CPD protocol and procedures, canine and mounted police demonstrations, handcuffing/searching, use of force, troubled buildings (yayyyy!!!), crisis intervention, and many other daily tasks of the CPD.  Did you know there are roughly 5 million people in the city, M-F, but only 2200 officer deployed per shift?

The main discussion of the night was about CPD’s Procedural Justice and Legitimacy course, which all officers had to receive training on. This focused on how protocol is to treat everyone with respect, care, and as a human being in an effort to increase positive outcomes, especially with traffic stops.  The instructors stressed the importance of “it’s not what you say, but how you say it and not what you do, but how you do it” approach.

Another goal of the CCPA, is for the citizens to take initiative and become ambassadors in their communities, by sharing our behind the scenes knowledge of CPD to increase positive outcomes when interacting!  More to come next week for Day 2!!!!!

 

Have a great week everyone!