Will County Gazette

State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) believes he has a solution that could help tackle the shortage of police and other public safety employees in the City of Chicago while putting money into those employees pensions. 

Batinick said he wants money generated from speed cameras put into the city's public safety pensions and he plans to introduce legislation to make it happen. 

"Chicago's public safety pensions need additional resources so that the people who put their lives on the line every day know that their pensions will be there when they retire," Batinick said in a press release. "This bill will allow the City Council to use speed camera revenue to benefit public safety efforts in Chicago, where it is desperately needed."

Batinick noted that the Firemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago only has 21% of the funding it needs, while the Policeman's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago only has 25% of needed funding, according to the press release. 

Police1 reported that a February survey of members by Ed Wojcicki, the executive director for The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, found the state was "at a point of crisis" when it came to retaining and recruiting new officers. According to the survey, police officer resignations rose 65% from 2020 to 2021 with more than half of responding agencies stating they weren't fully staffed. 

According to a June report by CBS News, the Chicago Police Department was short by 1,300 officers. Chicago Police Deputy Chief Migdalia Bulnes told the news outlet that the department needed to fill the gaps as soon as possible. Nineteen inactive U.S. Marines have applied to join the Chicago police force after Bulnes took a recruitment trip to Camp Pendleton near San Diego.