"“People who are on the streets can’t wait to get off the streets, and people who are off the streets see that profession as crumbling,” he told the DCNF. “A lot of the old timers are like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna get out before it gets ugly.’ So they’re accepting retirement early or just leaving the profession.”
More than 220 police officers resigned from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) from January to August, according to data obtained by CBS Chicago. Some officers worked 11 days in a row between April 1 and May 31, based on CPD records referenced by the city’s Office of Inspector General.
“Fact: cops are burnt out, they are not getting that needed time off, and they absolutely don’t have enough support from this mayor or superintendent. Period,” Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara declared in June, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The CPD told the DCNF that it currently has about 1,000 police officer vacancies, having hired 851 recruits so far in 2022 with another incoming class set before year’s end.
“The Chicago Police Department is continuing to ramp up its hiring efforts as law enforcement across the nation see an increase in retirements,” the department said.
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) employed 1,645 officers by Dec. 12, Lt. Tracy McCray of the San Francisco Police Officers Association told Fox & Friends First’s Todd Piro. That total represented a decline from roughly 1,830 in 2021 and 1,911 in 2020, according to police statistics Fox News cited.
“The devastation that officers feel, they don’t want to go through that anymore,” McCray said, according to the outlet. “They don’t want to work at a big city. They want to go somewhere else. So they just want to get out of the profession altogether.”
