Chicago police deploy an extra 1,400 officers for Labor Day weekend after last year’s holiday resulted in seven killed and another 35 wounded in shootings
- Police in Chicago are putting an extra 1,400 officers on the streets this weekend
- The deployment is part of a strategy over Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day
- Last year, police deployed an additional 1,300 officers for the deadly weekend
- The weekend ended with seven people killed in shootings and another 35 wounded
The Chicago Police Department is putting an extra 1,400 officers on the streets to try to reduce the number of shootings over the Labor Day weekend.
The deployment is part of a strategy the department employs over the three warm weather holiday weekends of Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day when the number of violent crimes typically increases.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that last year over the same holiday weekend, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson deployed an additional 1,300 officers.
The weekend ended with seven people killed in shootings and another 35 wounded.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Friday he is deploying an additional 1,400 officers to patrol the streets for the holiday weekend
Members of the Chicago Police Department and an angry crowd at the scene of a police involved shooting on Saturday July 14, 2018 in Chicago
Demonstrators in the South Shore neighborhood protesting the shooting death of 37-year-old Harith Augustus have a heated exchange with police on July 15, 2018 in Chicago
Johnson had said during a press conference on Friday: ‘CPD and our federal partners and our state partners simply will not tolerate violent behavior.’
The holidays sweeps are a prime time for police to take action in helping reduce violent crimes and other potentially dangerous issues around the city.
He said the raids this weekend already resulted in the arrests of 107 people and the seizure of 12 guns and numerous drugs.
‘We build these things up over a period of time and we like to coincide it with the holiday weekend so we can, hopefully, reduce some of the potential issues we might have going in to that holiday weekend,’ Johnson said.
As the department has done just before previous holiday weekends, this year it teamed up with other law enforcement agencies to execute raids in which dozens of people were arrested and several guns were seized.
Chicago Police and Illinois State Police officers monitor the scene during activists march onto Chicago Dan Ryan Expressway to protest violence in the city on July 7, 2018
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