Lori Lightfoot has secret detail of 70 cops protecting her as crime in Chicago spirals

One-time Defund the Police advocate Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a secret group of Chicago cops referred to as Unit 544 defending her alongside her bodyguards, it has been revealed.

The unit of 65 officers, 5 sergeants and a lieutenant are present round the clock safety for town’s mayor, collectively together with her bodyguard element of about 20 males, The Chicago Sun Times has revealed, citing metropolis information.

The revelation comes as crime within the Windy Metropolis has surged to horrifying new charges not seen in half a decade, and after Lightfoot proposed slashing a whopping $80 million from the Chicago Police Division finances in 2020 in the course of the Defund the Police protests.

The proposal was later scaled again and three.33 % of the finances – or $59 million – was reduce. 

It additionally comes amid information 660 cops retired in 2021 – nearly twice as many as in 2018. The mass retirements got here in the identical 12 months Lightfoot introduced a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for metropolis staff.

Lightfoot, 59, has since denounced the motion and in December pleaded with Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland to ship Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms brokers to town for six months after town noticed its homicide price soar to a 25-year excessive.

One-time Defund the Police advocate Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a secret group of Chicago cops referred to as Unit 544 defending her alongside her bodyguards, metropolis information reveal

The Chicago Solar Instances reviews {that a} memo was despatched to Chicago officers in July 2020, in the course of the top of the pandemic-spurred crime wave, informing they might apply for the unit shortly earlier than the duty drive was shaped. 

It learn: ‘The unit’s mission shall be to supply bodily safety for Metropolis Corridor, the mayor’s residence and the mayor’s element command publish. 

‘By the coordination of intelligence and sources, officers will reply to all threats associated to the mayor’s bodily properties to make sure its safety.’

In accordance with the Instances, officers making use of for the mayor’s private element wanted not less than 5 years on the job to be eligible.

Conditions for the place included ‘expertise in offering safety and property safety providers,’ the paper revealed. 

Regardless of the stipulations, nevertheless, officers which have since been admitted to Lightfoot’s private outfit weren’t required to have interaction in extracurricular coaching for the gig, CPD officers advised the Instances Monday.

Shortly earlier than the unit was arrange, Lightfoot, who had confronted criticism from protesting residents and even officers for her ties to the then quickly burgeoning anti-police motion, enlisted cops from town’s Humboldt Park and Logan Sq. neighborhoods to serves as sentries exterior her posh, multimillion-dollar residence.

The revelation comes as crime within the Windy Metropolis has surged to horrifying new charges not seen in half a decade, and after Lightfoot proposed slashing a whopping $80 million from the Chicago Police Division finances in 2020 in the course of the Defund the Police protests

Residents from the neighborhoods quickly observed how skinny the police drive of their areas had develop into, and complained to town, the Instances reported, as crime within the metropolis started to ramp up amid lockdowns and financial uncertainty spurred by the then rampant coronavirus. 

In an interview with the Instances, Lightfoot mentioned the choice to enlist able-bodied police from town’s embattled drive – already unfold skinny by the pandemic –  for her specialised bodyguard element was not in any respect associated to criticism she confronted over her earlier use of metropolis officers as safety. 

‘There wasn’t form of a unified command of the [officers] who have been in Metropolis Corridor, at my home and my [bodyguard] element,’ the Democrat, who moved to Chicago at 24, mentioned. 

‘The primary flooring of Metropolis Corridor was one chain of command, the second flooring was completely different chain of command, the fifth flooring [where the mayor’s office is located] was a special chain of command, the home was completely different and the [bodyguard] element was completely different,’ she defined.

‘We thought, and that is method earlier than the protests or the rest, it simply didn’t make sense. As a result of, you already know, if there was some form of emergency at Metropolis Corridor, for instance, the best hand wouldn’t essentially know what the left hand was doing as a result of all of them reported to completely different chains of command,’ Lightfoot mentioned.

The mayor then introduced up how residents protesting her involvement with the Defund the Police motion – which had soured the politician’s relationship together with her metropolis’s police drive, alongside together with her calls for that every one metropolis employees together with cops be vaccinated – made her the goal of repeated dying threats.

‘After which clearly, in 2020 specifically, there have been a major quantity of protests all around the metropolis, and a few of them focused at my home,’ Lightfoot advised the Instances Friday. 

‘All of the extra purpose why having a unified command to grasp and share intelligence and be prepared to reply if there was any form of menace was essential.’ 

Years later, violent crimes are nonetheless up throughout the board in Chicago, particularly since earlier than the beginning of the pandemic – lower than a 12 months after Lightfoot was sworn into workplace in Could 2019

Town of Chicago’s police division had been more and more at odds with Lightfoot – a Democrat who publicly supported the ‘defund the police motion’ after the dying of George Floyd in 2020 and slashed the drive’s finances by $59 million that very same 12 months – since she was elected in 2019.

Lightfoot has since denounced the ‘defund the police’ motion, backtracking in August after the capturing dying of Officer Ella French earlier that month, unveiling a brand new plan to – sarcastically – ‘refund the police.’ 

The very subsequent month, in September, Lightfoot unveiled a a $16.7 billion spending plan Monday that boosted funding for the division, lifting the Chicago Police Division’s annual finances to $1.9 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 2021.

The plan relied on federal cash to assist dig town out of a deficit that reached new heights throughout Lightfoot’s time in workplace, to $73million and outlined potential funding new neighborhood applications Lightfoot asserted will assist the troubled metropolis pull by means of the continued pandemic and deal with the prevailing problems with gun violence and crime. 

On the time, Lightfoot asserted to attendees of a convention discussing the proposed modifications that ‘we now have to verify we’re persevering with to supply sources to recruit the subsequent technology of cops and ensure we’re doing that recruitment in a method that displays range of town.’

Months later, violent crimes are nonetheless up throughout the board in Chicago, particularly since earlier than the beginning of the pandemic – lower than a 12 months after Lightfoot was sworn into workplace in Could 2019.

In accordance with the most recent statistics from the Chicago Police Division, Murders are up a whopping 74 % since 2019 – earlier than the pandemic impressed an inflow of crime to plague town’s streets – with 113 killings recorded for the reason that begin of the 12 months, in comparison with the 65 seen in 2019.

Murders are additionally up since 2020, in the course of the peak of the pandemic, which noticed a nonetheless regarding 91 murders.

In 2021, town’s homicide price jumped to a excessive not seen in 1 / 4 of a century, reaching 116 murders inside the first three months of the 12 months – simply three greater than this 12 months.

Violent assaults are additionally up, with greater than 100 extra circumstances of aggravated battery happening this 12 months than in 2021.

Sexual assaults and rapes are additionally up this 12 months, with town recording 12 extra incidents this 12 months than this time in 2021.

Small crimes reminiscent of theft have additionally surged since final 12 months, by a whopping 68 %, from 1,871 incidents to three,149.

Intercourse assaults and robberies are additionally up, rising by 3 and 11 %, respectively.

Gun violence, in the meantime -arguably town’s most urgent and prevailing difficulty – trickled down barely, from 497 shootings final 12 months to 449 to this point in 2022. 

Nevertheless, when in comparison with shootings seen in 2019, earlier than town’s unprecedented crime wave, the speed of gun violence has elevated astronomically, by a regarding 56 %.