Less than six months into his mayoral tenure, Mayor Rahm Emanuel touched the third rail of Chicago politics, and Anne Shaw is angry.

As part of his proposal to cut a financial path through an expected $635.7 million deficit in next year’s city budget, Emanuel announced last week that he wants to consolidate facilities in the city’s police department.

One of those is Anne Shaw’s station, the 13th District, or Wood Street, police station. The plan calls for police to consolidate the 13th into the 12th District, which is currently based at 100 S. Racine in the West Loop.

Sitting at 937 N. Wood St., the 13th District station sits in East Village, just around the corner from Shaw’s home at Augusta Boulevard and Hermitage Avenue. It’s an asset to the community, she said, and she’s not going to let it close without putting up a fight.

“I know there’s a budget problem — I get that. But keep the distribution times so that they don’t have to drive an hour, half an hour to get to the scene of a crime,” Shaw said. “It just doesn’t work. You need a proper distribution.”

Shaw worries, too, about the effect of closing down a police station on the immediate neighborhood around it.

“Having the police station actually situated in an area reduces crime,” Shaw said. “For obvious reasons the gangs aren’t going to hang around there.”

This isn’t the first time a mayor has tried to shut down the 13th District station. The station is one of the oldest in the city, and the 12th District is building a brand new station on the Near West Side at 1412 S. Blue Island Ave. that’s set to open in spring of 2012.

Emanuel’s plan also calls for moving the fire department into police headquarters at 3510 S. Michigan Ave., as well as dissolving the 19th District’s Belmont station on Chicago’s North Side and the 21st District’s Prairie station on the South Side.

The mayor said this move, along with a host of cuts in other services, would allow the city to make investments in infrastructure, “while creating a $20 million safety net in the City’s Rainy Day fund,” all without raising sales and property taxes.

The entire reorganization of the two departments would net the city a total of $82 million in savings, according to an Oct. 12 release from Emanuel’s office.

Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy threw his weight behind Emanuel’s proposal, suggesting that the merger would free up officers from administrative duties and allow for “more boots on the ground working in districts.”

“This consolidation plan will create a strong and sustainable organizational structure, allowing officers to perform their duties more effectively and with less bureaucracy,” wrote McCarthy in a statement on Friday.

Earlier this month, McCarthy and Emanuel advanced a promise for added foot patrols by announcing that nearly 140 Chicago police officers would be relocated from jail lockups to district beats.

The new, combined 12th District would unify the West Loop and all of the Near West Side under one police district for the first time in recent history. But the new station would also be more than three miles away from the current 13th District station.

However, that doesn’t bother Ald. Walter Burnett, whose 27th Ward covers parts of both the 12th and 13th districts.

“As far as the buildings go, I’m not married to the building,” Burnett said. “I don’t think the building is really what makes the community safe; I think the police service is what makes the community safe. … I’ll do anything to get more police officers. If I can help make the community safer, that’s fine by me.”

But Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd), who also has parts of both districts, said he was taken aback by the way the consolidation plan was unveiled.

“Is this how you roll it out? No community input? We’re told by the mayor that he wants to do this?” Fioretti said, incredulous. “Police stations are anchors of the community.”

The 13th District’s commander, Frank Gross, did not return calls requesting comment, but 12th District Commander Dennis Keane said he was waiting to see how the situation played out.

“This is all in preliminary stages,” Keane said. “It’s really too early to tell the dynamics. … It’s something that was just proposed, and we’ve just got to wait and see when and how we’re going to do it.”

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By thegangsownchicago from west
Posted: 10/23/2011 1:01 AM

Has anyone ever seen thst short, fat useless copthat walks up and down Chicago Avenue betwen Ashland and Greenview? This guy does nothing but write tickets and spunges of the restaurants for free food. The bottom line is if Chicago had a grip on gangs and drugs the city wouldn't be so up in arms about this. Compare Chicago crime stats to any other city and we're ALL utting our families lives on the line by living in such a dangerous city. I don't blame that lady.

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By Jason Epstein
Posted: 10/22/2011 11:37 PM

Instead of cutting police force focus on cutting out inefficiencies downtown. Cutting out 'donations' from city coffers to various companies. Make bidding for city projects actually focused on picking the lowest bid for quality work. Cut benefits a bit for city workers and retirees. Not completely just a few percentage points. There are ways to make money by not wasting money.

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By Jason Epstein from East Village
Posted: 10/22/2011 11:28 PM

Excellent point Tom. The city should focus on the repeat offenders who cost the city millions in court settlements every year. Closing the station will result in very long travel times from the station to the patrol areas. 3 miles in Chicago is quite a distance in rush hour. Twenty five minutes? How can it save that much administratively?? Are there that many administrative officers in one district building? If so the excess within the building should be trimmed not the whole building.

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By Terry
Posted: 10/21/2011 3:00 PM

What I don't get is that the station at 100 S. Racine is also scheduled to close when the other station gets built by University Village. So if Anne thought that was a far distance........

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By Tom.D from West Town
Posted: 10/21/2011 12:39 PM

“Police stations are anchors of the community.” Huh? It's nice having the station nearby, but it's hardly an "anchor". Sadly, the city pays out many millions every year for police misconduct cases. Policing is an incredibly tough job, done by imperfect human beings, so we'll never get that number to zero. But... There are too many "bad apples" currently on the streets and a serious "blue wall of silence." Part of our budget savings should come from cleaning out the bad cops.