Page 28 - March 2022

Real Women Wear Badges
Ready to Run
Detective Erin Jones has always been on the move, and now she wants
to help her fellow police officers by taking aim at the state Senate
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n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Revved up at warp speed – which seems to be the only one she knows – Detective Erin Jones waxes on about why she wanted to become a Chicago Police Of- ficer. Or why any woman would want to become a Chicago Police Officer.
When Jones came on in Au- gust 2002, she weighed about 100 pounds. As a result, she knew that people would tell her she couldn’t do it, that nobody would respect her, that everybody would think she was a joke.
Jones pretty much ignores such B.S. All B.S., for that mat- ter. And the question of why she wanted to be the police, well, that elicits a vintage Jones refrain.
“Because I’m noisy and I like to fight,” she quipped.
Tongue in cheek, to be sure.
But to put it another way, Jones
is fearless, and she doesn’t hold
back with her thoughts, opin-
ions, feelings, ideas, viewpoints,
efforts, energy and being unconditionally the police. It’s what makes her a great copper, the type of woman who has flour- ished in the Department to the level that now, one-third of offi- cers are female.
One question, one comment, one verbal jab can be kindling to get Jones going. “Firecracker” is the term you hear from those who know and love her. Fireball is more accurate. She can ramp up to full speed in a split second as police officer, mom, Lodge 7 member and now candidate for state Senate.
Jones is running for the seat in Senate District 10 that Robert Martwick currently holds. Martwick better get ready for a fight. He barely won this seat in 2020, beating CPD Sergeant Daniel O’Toole by only a few percentage points. Lodge 7 believes that Jones can take this election by 10 points.
“Martwick thinks this is his birthright,” charges Jones, who lives in this district with her husband Mike Tanzi, who’s on CFD, and two daughters. “His dad was a senator, so now he’s a sena- tor. They have their law firm that appeals people’s taxes. So he’ll go to Springfield and vote to raise property taxes so his law firm can appeal them.”
She’s just getting warmed up with the fighting words.
“And then he votes for all this anti-cop legislation. He votes to
defund the police. He votes
to remove cash bail bonds,”
Jones continues. “And his h legislation keeps cop killers p from being charged proper-
ly. So he doesn’t have a stake d
28 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2022
in the community like I do. These are my neighbors. This is my family. And I want to protect them, because I am a protector.”
A native of Rogers Park
who grew up with a sin-
gle mom, Jones’ first foray
into public service with the
City came working as a life-
guard at Leone Beach. That spawned the helper mental- l ity that led her to the acad-
emy and being assigned to patrol in 011 for 10 years.
After working on the rob- bery/burglary team, Jones spent six years in narcotics where, she noted, “I bought dope in every corner of the city. Even places where peo- ple don’t think there’s any.”
She made detective off the list three years ago and has done stints in sex crimes, violent crimes and now auto thefts. The helper mentality has only rocketed in 18 years on the job, espe- cially with what she experienced in the 11th District.
“You just have that camaraderie on patrol,” she explained. “If you call for help, no matter what, they’re going to show up, and they’re going to show up ready for you.”
At the same time, Jones experienced the type of support that made her feel that, man or woman, the only question was about handling the job. There was never a thought about acting like you don’t know how to do the job to get out of it.
Jones recalls the impact of a tact team officer she met when she first came on.
“I remember I would look at her and be like, ‘Oh my God, that chick, she is such a badass,’” Jones described. “Everybody re- spected her. I remember being new and looking at her and be- ing like, ‘I want to be like that.’”
Jones also gives props to a female FTO she had when working midnights.
“You could watch that woman talk the biggest, baddest, meanest guy into the back seat of her patrol car,” she praised. “If she had to get down and go to work, she would get down and go to work. But why, if she didn’t have to tear her pants.”