By Fran Spielman
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Police officers are counting down the days until the departure of Supt. Jody Weis — and cheering Weis’ own admission that he’s a “contract employee” here for a “finite amount of time” that ends March 1.
“When he first came in, a lot of guys said, ‘This guy has potential to be a breath of fresh air.’ He had a contract. He could have run this department the way it’s supposed to be run. He didn’t. The impression of most officers is this department is run by the fifth floor [mayor’s office],” said Bill Dougherty, first vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
“Our members cannot wait for a new superintendent to come in here and show us the leadership that’s been missing under Supt. Weis. They’re out there second-guessing themselves because they don’t believe this superintendent has their back.”
One day after Ald. Tom Allen (38th) became the first mayoral wannabe to declare plans to fire Weis, Mayor Daley defended the career FBI agent he hired in 2008 to restore public trust in a Police Department shaken by allegations of brutality, barroom brawls and a scandal in the disbanded Special Operations Section.
“When the headlines blared for months and years all about police brutality and everything else about the city and look what’s going on [in] the Police Department in disarray, this man came in and did the job that was necessary in regards to another generation of young men and women in the Police Department and the CAPS program and everything else that he’s done,” Daley said.
“He’s done a very good job, and I’m very proud I appointed him. You may differ with him on an issue or two. But in the long result, he’s had the passion and commitment as a law enforcement official. . . . Supt. Weis has done a tremendous job.”
As a career FBI agent and the first outsider in nearly 50 years to serve as Chicago Police superintendent, Weis was viewed with suspicion from day one.
From a morale standpoint, it has been downhill ever since.
On Wednesday, thousands of officers will descend on police headquarters to protest Weis’ leadership and what the FOP calls “dangerously low manpower” that has left officers outnumbered.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.