The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- Beginning Jan. 1, a pilot program will relieve some Chicago police officers of one of their less pleasant duties -- hauling dead bodies to the county morgue.
Two private contractors will pick up bodies on the West Side in a first step toward privatizing the practice citywide, said Tim Fallon, financial secretary of the Fraternal Order of Police.
“Our guys will still be doing it in the rest of the city until they get up to speed,” Fallon said. Bodies in suburban Cook County already are transported by private contractor.
The police union had argued for years that the century-old practice should end, saying officers are not well-equipped to handle corpses and are not paid extra to perform a task that is not really police work.
The argument went to an arbitrator, and last week the union won.
Officers transport roughly 18 bodies a day in police wagons. Typically, one wagon is assigned to each of the city’s 25 police districts.
With two officers per wagon and three shifts a day, 150 officers are on call to handle body transportation every day, Fallon said. None has received extra pay for the work, he said.
The union has said safety was a bigger concern than the lack of extra pay. Officers risk exposure to diseases or dangerous bacteria when forced to handle bloody, decomposing bodies, Fallon said.
Police officers still pulling corpse duty will get better equipment, Fallon said. Instead of body bags, “plastic gloves and paper masks,” the officers will get stronger gloves, plastic face shields and possibly gowns, he said.