CHICAGO (CBS) — More than 20 Chicago police officers are no longer being paid after defying the city’s vaccine mandate.
CBS 2’s Chris Tye reports from police headquarters where Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown just spoke. In some cases officers who chose to leave, are coming back.
There have been hundreds of sit downs between employees and CPD leadership. As many as 1,000 more to go.
These are people unwilling to provide vaccination status to CPD. The superintendent reveling the three step process these workers go through.
Step 1: Clarification with supervisor — Was this a clerical error?
Step 2: Talk with human resources to make sure this is an active decision they are making.
Step 3: Internal Affair to begin the formal entry into no-pay status.
These are the latest numbers: About 67% officers and civilians entered their vaccination status into the portal, the system where statuses are recorded. A third of staff not participating as of Tuesday night.
Of those participating, 82% are vaccinated. Those who are unvaccinated can be tested twice a week to continue working through the end of the year. There are 21 officers, CBS 2 has learned, that have been put on “no pay status” for failure to comply. Superintendent Brown said it’s not putting Chicagoans at risk.
“I just haven’t seen the data to support this. Officers have come to work. We are fully staffed. There hasn’t been a shift that’s been short. There hasn’t been this 30, 40, 50% shortage that I’ve heard from various sources,” Brown said. “Twenty-one people are on no pay status. Everyone else is at work.”
The Fraternal Order of Police said the mandate is illegal and in violation of their collective bargaining agreement. One of the arguments the union is making is that the judge hearing the motion has past professional relationships with Mayor Lori Lightfoot. There is a hearing on the matter Wednesday morning.
Mayor Lightfoot issued a statement to CBS 2:
Under the judicial code of ethics, the court has the ability to assess and determine actual conflicts of interests. There are none here. This is another dog whistle by a person who has repeatedly revealed himself to be a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic, hateful human being. Let’s move on.