Page 17 - July 2017 Newsletter

The City went forward with restricting time due and cancelling days off on the Fourth of July holiday for no ap- parent reason. Crime still occurred, and officers’ families’ lives were put in disarray, causing stress and disappoint- ment for all involved. President Graham is meeting with the Superintendent, hoping to resolve this and many oth- er issues.
The Awards Committee has convened, and although general meetings are suspended for the summer, we should have a few nice awards for officers in September.
If you are going to retire soon and you still have an open grievance awaiting a full arbitration hearing, contact Cath- arine at the Lodge so that if we need to expedite it, we will try. We often get calls from officers after they retire inquir- ing about their grievances; some solutions to the grievanc- es are only resolved in time, and it is very difficult to get a monetary award after an officer is retired when tradition- ally the awards are only in time on the books.
While we await the outcome of the Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) Unfair Labor Practice Decision from the Illinois Labor Board, some of us are still required to don the BWCs. I can list all the negatives of the BWC program and the De- partment’s roll-out of the program without negotiating with the Lodge, but that is not the purpose of this article.
As the City and the Department clean up the mess left from the extended Independence Day weekend, as citi- zens use garden hoses to rinse blood-stained sidewalks, members have contacted the Lodge to decompress with their experiences. Some members voiced concerns
regarding the BWCs and the protection of citizens, victims, witnesses and officers involved.
I’ve listened to the stories from the weekend, where some of our members were called into situations where serious levels of force had to be used, fortunately with none resulting in serious injury to our own. A small num- ber of these incidents were in districts whose members are under the BWC program. Many of these incidents require the, “Slow down, but keep ’em coming Squad.” As more and more officers arrive to the scene, EMS is often called, the scene is secured, and evidence is located and secured, but one thing that continues to roll out unnecessarily are the BWCs.
As the Order states, “in...any other use of force inci- dent” or ”...in circumstances involving an officer-involved death investigation” the highest-ranking on-scene Bureau of Patrol supervisor who has determined that the scene is secured will order the BWCs deactivated.
Since some of these supervisors may at times become overwhelmed, they may need a friendly reminder or a subtle gesture recommending the BWC deactivation. You just might be saving them some future embarrassment and preserving the dignity of the injured.
Finally, all of us at the Lodge are working hard and keep- ing up our protection for you, the members of FOP Chi- cago Lodge #7. We have a lot of work awaiting us with the upcoming contract negotiations, and we will fight hard to improve our working conditions. d
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2017 17