Thursday, January 29, 2009

Daley ally wants Weis to discuss teen cop

Heh! Fallout from recent stories about a 14-year-old boy who's had some success posing as a cop:
Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), the chairman of the City Council's Police and Fire Committee, wants Police Supt. Jody Weis to appear at a meeting of his committee on Feb. 6 to answer questions about the incident.

"The citizens of Chicago want to know what happened," Carothers said in a statement. "Someone has to account for the fact that no sworn member of the department caught him before it reached this level."

Weis scheduled a news conference for Thursday morning to address the issue.
This story has been blowing up the 6th's EveryBlock feed. The main reason why is because this recently happened at the Grand Crossing Police District HQ.

If you've yet to hear this story here's an article from The SouthTown:
A 14-year-old boy, dressed from head to toe in a regulation uniform, fooled Chicago Police into assigning him to traffic duty Saturday -- his true identity only discovered toward the end of the shift.

This isn’t the first time the teen, whom authorities didn’t identify because he’s a juvenile, allegedly impersonated a cop, said a police source who declined to elaborate.

Embarrassed police brass said at a Sunday news conference that while the teen meant no harm and wasn’t carrying a gun, he had nonetheless discovered a breach in security, and an internal investigation is under way.

About 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the teen, dressed in a sweater, skull cap with the Chicago Police Department logo, blue cargo pants, a blue uniform shirt, a dickey, a black vest and black boots, walked into the Grand Crossing District station at 7040 S. Cottage Grove Ave., “to report for duty,” Assistant Police Supt. James Jackson said.

The teen was paired with a veteran police officer, and they went on traffic patrol for the next five hours.

“The senior officer was in full control of squad car at all times,” Jackson said, noting the teen never interacted with the public and did not write traffic citations.

When they retuned to the precinct, a sergeant noticed the teen wasn’t wearing a “star” or badge, and the interrogation began. “The subject fabricated stories and could not answer why he did not have his star,” Jackson said. The teen was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of impersonating a police officer.
The article goes on to say that this young man was apart of a Police Explorers program. It allowed teens between 12-17 to have first-hand experiences interact with the community and the police. This young man thus began to develop a strong desire to become a police officer. This young man may just need to stay out of trouble or he'll never take the oath to be an officer.

Also Chicago Argus asks, Did he blow his dream this weekend? about this very subject.

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