As the city struggles with a crippling budget crisis, Acting Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy is proposing to set up a police foundation that would raise money from private sources to support the Chicago Police Department.McCarthy broached the idea Thursday during a meeting with representatives of foundations and businesses, but didn’t explicitly ask them for donations. Joyce Foundation President Ellen Alberding said she wasn’t surprised McCarthy raised the possibility during a broad discussion of police strategies. The Chicago Public Schools have a similar foundation, she said.
McCarthy was an invited guest at a dinner that also included representatives of the McCormick Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Chicago Community Trust and the Fry Foundation — as well as Target and ComEd.
“All of the foundations want to figure out a way to coordinate,” Alberding said. “We’re all interested in children’s health and well-being and education. We’re all really concerned about youth violence. Having a good partner in the police department would be excellent.”
Earlier this month, McCarthy was hired from Newark where he was the police director. Before that, he was the head of crime strategy for the New York Police Department, which has been supported by a police foundation since 1971. The New York City Police Foundation bought the city’s officers their first bulletproof vests. Over the years, it has raised more than $100 million for over 400 programs, according to its website.
“It’s critical in these times that we look for alternative funding for things that might be cut,’’ said McCarthy, who pointed to new technology as an example of something they could raise money for.
The foundation’s current projects include Operation Gun Stop, which provides rewards for anonymous information leading to arrests for illegal possession of guns. The foundation also supports a counterterrorism operations center, NYPD firearms training and special units like the bomb squad and mounted unit. And it enforces the department’s valuable trademarks, including the letters NYPD and the NYPD shield logo. The foundation created a licensing program for the trademarks to provide revenue for the NYPD.
Other cities such as Philadelphia and San Diego have police foundations, too. Chicago has a police memorial foundation, but that is dedicated to honoring fallen officers.
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From a Viewer:
SCC & DSLC, I disagree strongly about privately funding the police department:
"As the city struggles with a crippling budget crisis, Acting Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy is proposing to set up a police foundation that would raise money from private sources to support the Chicago Police Department."
Here's the danger of relying from private funding sources: They'll eventually tell the police department what to do. Sounds unlikely? It happened here in Chicago with the Chicago Skyway. The company that bought the Skyway was paying the City of Chicago close to $700,000 a year for a police car to man the Skyway 24 hours a day, 364 days a year. After purchasing the Skyway, the company was paying a connected security firm (I think it was Monterrey) a quarter of a million dollars a year to provide security(off-duty coppers) at the Skyway tollbooths. Private corporations thrive on profit and to-hell-with-the employees safety mentality. The company that owns the Skyway was no different. One of the first cost cutting moves they made to improve revenues was to cut out security at the Skyway tollbooths. This was done even though there was a past history of armed robberies at the toll booths. In addition, you have the drunk pissed-off losers returning from the Indiana casinos occasionally terrorizing the tollbooth attendants; especially on midnights. The Skyway owners insisted the Chicago squad car assigned to the Skyway was theirs and they wanted the Skyway squad car to remain by the tollbooths. The heck with protecting the motoring public from drunk drivers, insane speeders, and preventing traffic accidents. The Skyway owners were adamant: They're paying for the squad car and they wanted to tell the police how to deploy it. This is a true fact. The police department won the arguement after the lawyers got involved at the Corporation Counsel.
Could it get worse? There's past history in American history of law enforcement used by the corporations as thugs: Remember the strike breakers in the Great Depression? We're in a World Depression and it looks like history may repeat itself. And there's not one blue suit out there that wants to act as a strike breaker.
Phil S
P.S. Enjoy the blog. Keep up the good work.