Chicago is embroiled in debate over whether to hire additional police officers to enforce traffic laws, transfer more of the responsibility to civilian traffic-control aides or, as some cities do, simply let drivers and pedestrians duke it out on the streets.
The struggle over which way to proceed comes amid worsening traffic congestion in the downtown and a spree of deadly hit-and-run accidents this summer.
Some aldermen are questioning whether the traffic-control aides, who are not police officers, receive adequate training and are capable of doing their job. But other city officials, led by Mayor Daley, are wary of replacing the aides with police officers because, they argue, the officers are needed to fight crime.
“When I first became an alderman, there was a police traffic officer on every block of Michigan Avenue, and it was like having a police station on each corner,” said Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd). “The drivers in this town are not obeying the orders of these traffic aides, and until they do we are not going to get anywhere.”
The traffic-control aides, meanwhile, complain that drivers–and pedestrians especially–ignore their authority. They say the problem got worse when the city ordered them to switch uniforms, from police officer uniforms to blue polo-style shirts, lime vests and navy pants and caps.
“We are harassed and disrespected every day because of these uniforms,” said Kathleen Sanchez, who was a police department crossing guard for nine years before becoming a traffic-control aide three years ago. “People swear and laugh at you.”
Attention to what Ald. Thomas Allen (38th) has called Chicagoans’ Wild West driving mentality became sharply focused after a hit-and-run driver struck and killed a 4-year-old girl, Maya Hirsch, who was walking with her family near Lincoln Park Zoo in May.
The City Council subsequently passed an ordinance that Allen proposed to hire 100 more police officers to handle traffic duties citywide, using fines collected from drivers running red traffic lights, who were caught by cameras. Only 32 police officers are on the traffic detail currently, and mostly downtown, Allen said.
The 100 new police officers would cost the city about $7.5 million a year, officials said.
Daley is balking, however. Daley said he thinks more police officers are needed to catch drug dealers and other criminals in the neighborhoods instead of blowing whistles on street corners. The matter of hiring more police officers to handle traffic problems still is under review, said police department spokeswoman Monique Bond.
Money talks
About 127 full-time and 560 part-time traffic-control aides are on the city payroll. When not directing traffic, mainly during rush periods, the aides are assigned to write parking tickets. They do not have the authority to ticket drivers for moving violations.
The annual salary of full-time traffic-control aides ranges from $32,000 to $52,000, according to the traffic authority. Part-time traffic aides receive $15.59 an hour. Both full-time traffic aides and part-timers receive 40 hours of training at the Chicago Police Department training academy.
The salary, benefits and equipment for one uniformed police officer exceeds $100,000 a year, raising the issue of whether using police for traffic control is warranted, some experts say.
