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Overwhelmed Chicago PD ‘coded out’ backlog of 911 calls, effectively wiping them amid raucous Mexican celebration

September 20, 2022 | | Print Article

The Chicago Police Department had its hands full over the weekend with massive downtown crowds celebrating Mexican Independence Day.

Short-handed and overwhelmed, the department saw 911 calls back up to the point that most calls in two districts were over four hours old, according to CWB Chicago. Some calls exceeded 5 hours in a city where Democratic leaders make every effort to disarm residents.

Facing a dire challenge, a high-ranking Chicago police leader found a quick solution to the problem — essentially wipe the board and start anew.

CPD Chief Angel Novalez ordered a dispatcher to “code out” any calls more than two hours old that didn’t involve a physical injury, CWB Chicago reported, the order applying to CPD’s Central (1st) and Near North (18th) districts.

All of which means, as the news outlet noted, those who called in a burglary in progress, a person with a gun, a group of people loitering on private property, an auto theft, a purse snatching, or anything else that did not involve someone being physically injured were ignored, left on their own to deal with the problem as best they could.

The order to “code out” was broadcast on the local police district radio frequency at around 2:55 a.m., and CWB Chicago embedded the audio in its reporting.

A unit had become available to handle a call and was seeking direction on which call to pursue first. When it was noted that there was a person with a gun call nearly 3 hours old, Novalez replied, “Did you say two hours?”

The dispatcher clarified that “most everything” awaiting police response was ” three-plus hours old. Some of it’s four and five hours old.”

“All right, squad. If it doesn’t involve injury, code it,” Novalez replied.

After the backlog was cleared, the highest-priority call still waiting for dispatch was a reported criminal sexual assault attempt that was 90 minutes old.

CWB Chicago pointed out the irony in Novalez being “in charge of the Chicago Police Department’s reform efforts. As deputy chief of community policing before that, he was in charge of fostering the department’s relationship with residents.”

Aside from losing faith in the integrity of our elections, losing faith in the ability of authorities to uphold the rule of law may be the most crippling crisis a community can endure.

Turns out, this is business as usual in Chicago, Mexican Independence Day or not.

“The Chicago Police Department is spread so thin that in 2021 more than half of high-priority emergency service calls were not responded to,” Real Clear Policy reported.

Citing the Wirepoints blog, RCP said the astounding figure was uncovered through public records requests to the Chicago Police Department, which showed that there were 406,829 incidents of high-priority emergency service calls where no police responded.

That’s more than half of the 788,000 high-priority 911 service calls dispatched in 2021, according to Wirepoints.

This being the end result of a full year of Democrats and the corporate media demonizing law enforcement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The actions of one police officer were exploited by the left and resulted in a robust ‘defund the police’ effort in many Democrat-run cities. This resulted in a wave of police officer retirements and a recruiting deficit, leaving departments seriously short-handed.

Couple that development with the criminal-friendly justice reforms seen in cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where cash bail has been eliminated in many cases and prosecutors look to downgrade charges or drop them altogether — all in the name of equity — and the communities see a revolving door of criminals being arrested and back in the street in 2-3 hours.

The irony here is that Mayor Lori Lightfoot told residents in 2020 to “call the police” and not take matters “into your own hands.”

“Do not pick up arms and try to be the police. If there’s a problem, call 911. We will respond,” she vowed. “But I urge people to show restraint and do not take matters into your own hands.”

Yet, when residents keep voting for incompetent officials like Lightfoot, are they not responsible for the ensuing consequences?

Tom Tillison
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