Chicago police Superintendent Jody Weis is facing an uncertain summer as recent crime spikes and questions about his leadership have cost him the support of many rank-and-file officers, according to an article from the Chicago News Cooperative published in the New York Times.
Chicago officers have been working without a contract since 2007; an unpopular shift schedule has only recently been changed; and a federal misconduct probe sent a department veteran to prison for 40 months.
Patrol morale won't be helped by an arbitrator's ruling on Friday that officers should receive a 10 percent raise over five years, which is well below the 16 percent Mayor Richard Daley offered in 2008.
The president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police characterized the union's relationship with Weis, a 22-year FBI agent who took over the department in 2008, as "frosty."