About 500 additional Chicago Police officers will be deployed to higher-crime neighborhoods by the end of the month, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced at a press conference Tuesday.

Mayor Emanuel made the announcement at the Chicago PD's Sixth District headquarters in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.

The officers will come primarily from the department's Mobile Strike Force and Targeted Response Unit. The officers will begin their new assignments as early as Thursday with all of them on the beat by Sunday.

"Without the security and safety of our streets we cannot have successful, thriving communities where people want to live and stay," according to Mayor Emanuel. "Successful policing begins with the beat officers who earn the trust of the communities they serve, shift by shift and patrol by patrol. This is a down payment on my promise to add 1,000 police officers to the beat. We cannot beat crime without more officers on the beat."

At the announcement, Mayor Emanuel was joined by acting Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy; Felicia Davis, the mayor's first deputy chief of staff and a former Chicago officer; 11th Ward Alderman James Balcer, chairman of the committee on public safety; and 17th Ward Alderman Latasha Thomas.