PO Potatoes- The thoughts and musings of a crime fighting Potato

Being a cop is stressful a lot of the time.  Chaotic calls, fast paced situations, use of force incidents, shooting scenes, large scale fights, people on drugs or in a state of excited delirium...the stress is just a part of doing business. Then there are the complaints, going to talk to IA or a civilian oversight body, getting pulled aside in the hallway or into the sergeants office for a little chit-chat, or going down to Corp Counsel/city attorneys to talk about the lawsuit and why someone is suing you. More than once I've seen the back side of this door Then there is the ever present risk of injury from hopping fences, crashes in a squad car, being struck when outside of a squad on a traffic stop, and use of force injuries.  Lets not forget that always waiting-in-the-wings chance of being seriously injured or killed by gunfire or a weapon.  Every cop knows what the potential outcome is for an incident, even the "routine" or "mundane" calls that we handle eve

676 retirees 237 resignations 130 on leave of absences That is 1,043 officers no longer part of Chicago's police force at the end of 2021. Add another 300+ set to retire the first 2 months of 2022 and that's a 10th of the manpower IF  the department was fully staffed (at 13,100).  Which it isn't, and hasn't been for a few years now, so we are talking about an even higher percentage, I'd surmise that is more like 10%.  Even Rahm's 1000 (the 1000 new hires) didn't get us back to fully staffed.  The department has struggled to hire, and yes I know its everywhere , but when I first got on cops left other departments to come here.  I can count off the top of my head a dozen cops who have left here to go to other departments.  Some taking significant pay cuts to have a less toxic work environment, actually have their days off, and more support. Other departments are seeing big city cops leaving in droves, and they are seeing an opportunity to save on training exp