









by BRIAN NADIG

Alderman Nicholas Sposato (38th) says the Chicago Police Department has assured him that Northwest Side district officers are not being reassigned to South and West Side districts experiencing the worst gun violence in the city.

The department is deploying hundreds of additional officers in the 5th (Calumet), 6th (Gresham), 10th (Ogden), 11th (Harrison) and 15th (Austin) districts by paying overtime to existing officers in those areas or by canceling days off.

The strategy calls for using officers “who know the district,” Sposato said.

The 38th Ward office has been inundated with inquires about whether the Northwest Side was losing officers due to the city’s efforts to increase police presence in those five South and West Side districts, Sposato said.









“We’re receiving many calls, e-mails and office visits,” Sposato said.

16th (Jefferson Park) Police District commander William Looney said that the only recent reassignments in the district have been temporary and for annual events like the Bud Billiken Parade and Lollapalooza.

More than 70 people were shot in Chicago during the first weekend in August.