As the Chicago Police Department tries to tamp down the city’s rise in homicides and shootings this year, Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced a shake-up in his command structure, moving seven commanders to different assignments.
The changes mean that McCarthy has replaced 19 of the city’s 23 district commanders – some because of retirement -- since he became superintendent in May 2011.
The rise in violent crime in parts of the South and West Sides played a role in the shake-up, Melissa Stratton, McCarthy’s spokeswoman, said Wednesday. She said the changes had been in the planning stages for some time. So far this year, homicides have risen 19 percent through Chicago, while shootings are up more than 11 percent.
Among the changes, Joseph Gorman, the commander of the gang investigations unit, was named commander of the South Side’s Deering police district.
Stratton said McCarthy put Gorman in charge of Deering to quell its gang violence. The department touts him as its foremost gang expert.
Deering, which includes such crime-ridden neighborhoods as Back of the Yards and Fuller Park, led all 23 districts in shootings last month, up 49 percent from a year earlier, as the Tribune reported earlier this week.So far this year in Deering, homicides there have jumped 50 percent and shootings 37 percent, according to department statistics.
Gorman succeeds David Jarmusz, who will head the department’s public transportation section, which oversees patrols along CTA lines. Christopher Kennedy, the commander of the Central police district, which includes downtown, succeeds Gorman as the commander the citywide gang investigations unit. John Graeber, the former head of public transportation, takes over as commander of the Central district.
In addition, Melissa Staples was moved from commander of the Northwest Side’s Albany Park District to head the new Near West District, a consolidation of the former Monroe and Wood districts. The district’s station at 1412 S. Blue Island Ave. is slated to open next week.
Lucy Moy-Bartosik will move from acting command of the North Side’s Lincoln District, which covers the Edgewater and Uptown neighborhoods, to police headquarters to become executive officer of the patrol division. Jimmy Jones, the former executive officer of the Far South Side’s Calumet District, will take Moy-Bartosik’s former post.
jgorner@tribune.com
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Top cop announces shake-up in command structure
