Page 11 - July2019 FOP Magazine

Financial Secretary’s Report
Why do those in charge continue to beat their officers down?
I hope you are able to find time to relax with family and friends during this season, which is al- ways a busy one for the police.
Having said that, I want to address those people in charge of the department: Stop cancelling days off!
Listen...you’ve spent years reducing the num- ber of officers in order to save money. Then, when there is a surge in crime and the city is in danger, you do mass hiring for a police staff that should
never have been reduced in the first place.
Next, you start listening to every little complaint and change
policies without properly training your officers. Instead of de- fending the brave officers who risk their lives every day, you give credence to every lie being spewed.
As I’ve said before, policing is basically three things: Pa- trolling, prevention and apprehension. All the best decisions in executing those ideas have already been introduced. The only ideas left are the bad ones that were passed over.
You cannot beat down your officers again and again. Just when you think things cannot get worse, you make it worse. The stress these officers go through is monumental. Their only relief
is their days off, and you cancel those.
Is there no one in charge who worked the streets and remem-
bers how precious those days off were when they came around? When you had a holiday in the summer that fell on your day off, you made plans with your friends and family.
In the long run, cancelling those days is a cumulative effect with bad consequences.
Finally, three districts were closed in the city, making officers travel longer distances to their jobs and crowding officers into the remaining districts.
The ideas that caused these current problems were bad ones. Someone in charge needs to speak up now and say, “It was wrong. Here is what we can do to fix the problems.” Help offi- cers continue to do the job they have been doing for years.
A Grievance Committee was held on June 20 with the follow- ing results: the committee decided to withdraw five grievances; go forward with 10 grievances, including three to binding sum- mary opinion; and defer four grievances.
I want to thank Rich Aguilar and the rest of the committee for handling the workload while I was out.
By the time you read this article, the picnic will have already occurred; I hope you all had a good time. Stay safe.
MICHAEL GARZA
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2019 11