During the hearing, Snelling answered questions about the budget and also expressed concerns about extremists within the police department.
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Snelling said nine current Chicago police officers are under internal investigation for having ties with the Oath Keepers, an extremist group that played a big role in the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. The department said it just received allegations about the officers last week.
"Once those investigations have been completed and due process has been served and we find we have members amongst our ranks who are members of hate groups we will do everything that we can to remove those members from our ranks," Snelling said.
He addressed the issue at the beginning of a long day before the city council's budget committee, but Ald. Chris Taliaferro said more than a statement is needed. The council's Police and Fire Committee chair said there must be a policy.
"There is no policy right now that says a police officer cannot be a member of a hate group," Taliaferro said.
The rest of the city council members pepper Snelling with questions about department staffing levels and how it affects crime and police response times.
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"We are looking to create a system where those calls for service that are of non-criminal nature that we have someone else respond to those calls this will free officers up," Snelling said.
The 2024 buget calls for 400 new civilian positions to help with non-criminal calls. Snelling said that, combined with bringing back retired officers and moving a city-wide unit back to the police districts, will help increase patrol numbers, but air support to help catch carjackers is lacking.
"The helicopter is very, very important to us, currently our helicopters are not in good shape they are down more than they are up that makes it difficult," said Acting CPD Counter-Terrorism Chief Duane Devires.
City Council members pointed out cities bigger and smaller than Chicago have multiple police helicopters. CPD only has 3. Two new ones are ordered, but they will likely be replacements.