Chicago PD brass threatens to deny retirement benefits to cops who choose retirement over vaccine mandate

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot - YouTube screenshot (courtesy of Forbes Breaking News)

Chicago PD brass threatens to deny retirement benefits to cops who choose retirement over forced mandate

Posted by: | |Categories Featured, Must Reads, Politics and Policing
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Editor note: In 2020, we saw a nationwide push to “defund the police”.  While we all stood here shaking our heads wondering if these people were serious… they cut billions of dollars in funding for police officers.  And as a result, crime has skyrocketed – all while the same politicians who said “you don’t need guns, the government will protect you” continued their attacks on both our police officers and our Second Amendment rights.

And that’s exactly why we’re launching this national crowdfunding campaign as part of our efforts to help “re-fund the police”.

For those looking for a quick link to get in the fight and support the cause, click here.

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CHICAGO, IL – According to reports, the top cop in the Chicago Police Department has threatened to withhold retirement benefits from individuals who refuse to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

The feud between those opposing vaccine mandates within the Chicago Police Departments and city and department officials continues to grow in controversy, with Superintendent David Brown reportedly saying that officers that decide to retire as opposed to adhering to vaccine mandates “may be denied retirement credentials.”

This latest development in the saga of vaccine mandates within the Chicago Police Department stems in part – outside of the imposed mandate itself – from the controversy stirred up with Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara urging union members to not comply with vaccine mandates imposed by the city.

The Lightfoot administration imposed a deadline of October 15th for city employees to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status or face being put on what has been referred to as a “no-pay status”.

While those who failed to provide proof of vaccination were warned they would be put on unpaid leave, since verifying compliance would take time, Mayor Lightfoot said the no-pay status would not take effect until after the weekend.

Mayor Lightfoot told reporters on October 18th that she was offering individuals who had not reported their status “one last opportunity to do the right thing.” However, she acknowledged that police brass at CPD headquarters were probing its employees during the same appearance.

The mayor stated that starting at police headquarters and moving throughout other divisions, officials are toting a list of individuals whom they’re verifying whether or not they’ve actually signed up on the portal and urging compliance.

Yet, if officers interviewed remain noncompliant regarding the vaccine mandate, Mayor Lightfoot said officials will be “taking action from there” meaning that those officers will be “put into a no-pay status and then the disciplinary process will proceed from there.”

This back-and-forth over the vaccine mandate within the CPD has spawned legal action taken by both the city and the FOP.

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Seattle defunded the police and lost countless cops. Facing losing a lot more – they’ve activated an ’emergency plan’.

(Originally published October 17th, 2021)

SEATTLE, WA – According to reports, an ongoing lack of patrol officers within the Seattle Police Department is resulting in the dispatching of detectives and non-patrol officers to respond to emergency calls.

Due to a personnel shortage, the Seattle Police Department switched to an emergency officer dispatching method on October 13th.

The police union head expressed concern that COVID-19 vaccine requirements would make matters worse, but the city’s mayor encouraged the few remaining holdouts to receive the vaccine, adding that officers are already obliged to provide evidence of other vaccinations beyond the one for COVID.

According to a KOMO news report, the agency has lost over 300 officers in the last year. If current officers do not comply with an October 18th deadline to bear proof of being vaccinated against the coronavirus, almost 300 additional officers could lose their jobs.

Police union president Mike Solan mentioned the following regarding the conundrum:

“We can’t afford to lose one, that’s how desperate we are to hold onto to people. If we lose more officers, the public safety situation will become that much more untenable here.”

Per data coming from the Seattle mayor’s office, 782 officers have provided documentation of having received their COVID-19 vaccination, whereas 98 officers are requesting exemptions, and 186 officers have not yet submitted any paperwork.

As the deadline approaches, officials hope that more people will submit the necessary documentation.

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Here’s our previous report from earlier in October detailing more information regarding the plight the SPD is facing in concurrence of the potential ramifications of officers opting to not be vaccinated. 

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Already defunded Seattle Police facing losing nearly 300 cops – or more than 1/4 of their force – this month alone

(Originally published October 7th, 2021)

SEATTLE, WA – According to reports, the Seattle Police Department could lose as much as 27% of their sworn officers by mid-October due to the city’s mandate that state employees and healthcare workers be fully vaccinated by October 18th.

Back in August, Governor Jay Inslee announced a vaccination mandate that would require most state employees and healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated by October 18th.

Said mandate by Governor Inslee was also adopted in King County and the city of Seattle, which has set the stage for the current debacle regarding the potential loss of as many as 292 sworn officers for the Seattle Police Department.

In order for employees to be considered fully vaccinated by October 18th, those employees would’ve had to have received either their final dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine by October 4th.

According to an update from the Seattle Police Department as of October 6th, 292 sworn officers have yet to provide proof of their vaccination status.

While officers are able to apply for various exemptions regarding the vaccine mandate, be they religious or medical reasons, it’s unclear what percent – in any – are among those 292 officers that have yet to provide proof of their vaccination status.

Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz sent out a letter to staff on October 1st regarding the impending vaccination deadline, acknowledging that staffing issues could arise if the deadline isn’t met:

“I am asking anyone who has not submitted this information to please get it done. In preparation for the City Vaccination mandate, SPD has constructed various staffing plans for how we continue to ensure continuity of emergency and legally-mandated services. In order to have the least amount of disruptions to our personnel we need to know how many individuals are cleared, under city vaccination rules.

At the moment – we have to assume we have hundreds of unvaccinated individuals based on the information submitted. This could create a disruption to unit of assignments.”

Back in August, we at Law Enforcement Today reported on how lengthy police response times were in Seattle in the wake of concerning attrition numbers the Seattle Police Department experienced reportedly stemming from anti-police protests and riots throughout 2020.

Here’s our previous report from this past August detailing the difficulties Seattle Police are already dealing with due to their already-depleted force.

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Welcome to police-defunded Seattle, where cop response times exceed 60 minutes for certain calls

(Originally published August 11th, 2021)

SEATTLE, WA – According to reports, Seattle Police’s response times for certain calls are exceeding 60 minutes, a result that officials say is directly tied to the ongoing staffing crisis that the Seattle Police Department is experiencing.

During the Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee meeting held on August 10th, the issues revolving around police response times and staffing shortages for the department were brought up while discussing the SPD Quarterly Finance and Staffing Report.

Back in May, reports noted that the Seattle Police Department lost nearly 20% of their police force, with approximately 260 officers leaving the department – which much of that attrition was credited toward the intense anti-police protests and police reforms enacted in Washington.

Councilmember Alex Pedersen commented during the August 10th city council meeting that this is overall “concerning”:

“This attrition is concerning and when we look at 911 response times as well.”

Dr. Antonio Oftelie, a Court Monitor of Seattle Police, warns that the current staffing levels within the Seattle Police Department runs the risk of the agency not being able to adhere to a federal judge’s imposed consent decree that called for reforms like community policing:

“What we can’t do is starve the organization so much, you cannot do community policing. SPD is stuck right now where they are only doing responding to crisis and they don’t have the people and resources to do true community policing.”

Council member Teresa Mosqueda inferred that Seattle Police’s staffing crisis and response times problem is mostly the fault of Seattle Police, noting that “the council fully funded the hiring plan as proposed by the mayor’s office.”

Yet, a spokesperson for Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office funds that the attrition rate within Seattle Police is more heavily tied to the rhetoric coming from the city council, highlighting how the council has pushed for a 50% reduction in police officers in Seattle:

“Over the past year, the City Council has advocated for cutting 50 percent of officers, threatened out of order layoffs, and cut the salary of former Chief Carmen Best and her leadership staff. The City Council continues to hold millions of dollars of department budget hostage and has yet to act on the Mayor and SPD’s comprehensive budget proposal.”

“If the Council President now cares about recruitment and retention at the Seattle Police Department, she should look at departing officers’ exit memos who note lack of support from City Council as a key reason for job dissatisfaction and separation then vote to immediately to support the Mayor and SPD’s proposal regarding hiring and retention.”

“Publicly promising to fire 50 percent of your workforce is a failed retention strategy, which is why Mayor Durkan, former Chief Best, and Interim Chief Diaz have warned City Council against layoffs and blunt cuts.”

Christopher Fisher, Seattle Police’s Strategic Initiatives Director, said that internal polling from the department shows that even active officers wouldn’t recommend to their own family members to come work at the department:

“On a scale of negative 100 to positive 100, how would you endorse a family member coming to work where you work? SPD’s is negative 50. Which is bad.”

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About The Author

Gregory Hoyt is an I.T. Marketing and Sales professional based out in Sierra Vista, Arizona. While being a staunch and outspoken advocate of law enforcement and first responders, Gregory Hoyt also has the experience of having spent nearly 5 years in prison as well. Since then, he's used his unique perspective to offer support and commentary about the criminal justice system. When not working or combating bad ideas, Hoyt also leisurely studies economics, history, and law.

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