1,000 DESK COPS TO HIT THE STREET

One thousand Chicago Police officers -- some of whom have not been on
regular street duty in years -- were ordered Tuesday to come out from
behind their desks to disrupt open-air drug markets that Mayor Daley
said create a "climate of fear" akin to terrorism.

All officers not assigned to a beat, tactical or detective car will
"take their turn in the field" one week out of every five. The
assignments are expected to begin early next month at 100 of Chicago's
most active drug markets, according to newly appointed Police Supt.
Phil Cline.

That includes officers in the motor maintenance, records, medical,
personnel, training, evidence and recovery sections, as well as those
on the personal staffs assigned to police brass.

It will not include those assigned to the City Council, the
corporation counsel and inspector general's offices and officers
working as bodyguards for elected officials. Those officers are
already considered part of "field units."

"There's nobody exempt. Officers that are on my staff, on the first
deputy's staff -- everybody is going to take their turn in the
field.... If the Chicago Police Department hopes to tackle the city's
violent crime problem, then it will take everyone who wears the
uniform," Cline said.

Asked if he would take a turn, Cline said, "I'll be out there. I don't
think I'll do eight hours, I think I've got some other things to do.
But I'm not afraid to go out on the street."

Noting that there will be 200 administrators on the street each day,
the superintendent said, "This isn't something that we're going to be
able to do forever. We couldn't continue to operate if we did this for
years. We're looking for an immediate bang for our buck on this. This
is a concentrated effort ... to try and put these things out of business."

Daley said that open-air drug markets are the "major source of income"
for street gangs. Drug money is used to buy guns, post bond and pay
attorney's fees. If police can choke off that lucrative financial
pipeline, they can have an even greater impact on the city's homicide
rate.

Earlier this year, Daley made crime the centerpiece of his fifth
inaugural address after a troubling rise in the city's murder rate and
a string of shootings involving innocent children caught in the
crossfire of rival gangs. Cline went to work on a comprehensive plan
that helped convince Daley to appoint him superintendent.

He created an elite unit deployed to hot spots, put cameras on
high-crime street corners, created area narcotics teams and
established teams of rookie officers on foot patrol -- one of which
was dubbed "The Jump Out Boys" -- to roam the streets of Chicago's 12
highest crime neighborhoods.

Cline also launched "Operation Double Play" to combat drug sales on
the West Side. That's where officers arrest drug dealers in the
morning and pose as their replacements in the afternoon, arresting
thousands of would-be buyers and seizing vehicles often used to drive
in from the suburbs.

The strategies appear to be working. Homicides are down 5 percent --
from 571 by this time last year to 540 in 2003 -- and there have been
700 fewer shootings.

The decision to dispatch desk jockeys to the streets -- while also
ordering more street conspiracy cases and Double Play missions -- is
an acknowledgement that even more needs to done.

The administrative officers will work in two-person teams and spend
one of every five weeks in uniform in a marked police car parked in
the middle of an open-air drug market.

With little or no refresher training except a video about how open-air
drug markets operate, they'll be asked to get out of the car, shoo
customers away, find out where dealers are keeping their stash and
make searches.

Some administrators wondered aloud whether unseasoned officers in
administrative jobs might be unprepared for the job.

"They need to be with somebody who knows what they're doing," said a
30-year veteran who now works the desk at one of the city's 25 police
districts.

Chief of Patrol Jim Maurer countered that all of the administrators
have been working summer details at parades and festivals. They're
also subject to continuous training.

"They were hired as police officers -- not as clerks," he said.