As 13th District police officers get ready to close their headquarters by the year’s end, some community residents say they’re still waiting to hear about the possibility of a smaller police office for the East Village area.
Officers at the 13th District station, located at 937 N. Wood St., will become a part of the new 12th District station, 1412 S. Blue Island Ave, near the South Side. The move is scheduled for late December, said Sgt. Juan Clas, but he said that date is tentative since the transition has been rescheduled regularly since June.
Clas said more officers will likely patrol East Village because of a plan for the city to place more officers in the new district. However, he could not give a concrete number or estimate of how many more police officers will be in the area.
The district is closing because it is one of the city’s most “inefficient” police districts and makes more sense to be combined with the 12th District, said Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st). But area residents said the building provides a police presence that helps people feel safe.
“It’s in the heart of our neighborhood,” said Neal McKnight, president of the East Village Association. “It’s in the center of East Village. (Removing the police station) is bad for the community. It’s bad for our relationship with the police.”
McKnight and other community organizers said a smaller satellite police office, with officers from the old 13th District, would allow residents to voice their concerns to officers closer to home rather than traveling to the new station. McKnight added that the office would maintain a police presence that area residents are used to.
Moreno said at a Chicago Grand Neighbors Association meeting last year that he will try to explore the possibility of opening a satellite office, said association president Lyn Wolfson.
“We were hoping (the alderman) could figure out a way for a satellite office,” Wolfson said. “As an organization, we’ve been pushing for this office and are constantly asking questions about the status of a satellite office.”
Officer Clas said some beats will be expanded because of the combination of the two police districts, and community policing–or CAPS–meetings for some beats will be reduced from once a month to once every other month.
“So it impacts us greatly because we’re not only losing our police station, but we will not have monthly CAPS meetings,” Wolfson said, of beat 1324.
Jerry Gabrielatos, one of Moreno’s aides, said the alderman’s office will most likely receive details about the possibility of a smaller area police office on Nov. 30 during a meeting with “upper-level staff” at the Chicago Police Department. No news of the meeting has been released yet.
If the office is established, one suggestion has been to place it inside the historic Goldblatt’s Building, located on the edge of East Village at 1613-35 W. Chicago Ave, said Ronda Locke, member of a five-person group set up by Moreno to help decide what would be done with the 13th District building.
Locke said that location would not require hefty costs—the building is owned by the city and houses other city departments, such as the Department of Human Services and the Department of Consumer Services. Exact costs for the satellite station cannot be determined right now.
The city’s total 25 districts were originally planned to be trimmed down to 22 when closing the 13th, 21st and 23rd Districts was unveiled in October 2011 in Mayor Emanuel’s 2012 budget proposal.
Since then, Ald. Moreno’s office has established the working group Locke serves on and created two surveys to gauge what area residents want to do with the 13th District building.
While organizations like East Village Association and Chicago Grand Neighbors Association have been against removing the 13th district since last year, Ald. Moreno said it is the right move.
“I understand (residents) feel secure with the station, but it’s completely inefficient,” Moreno said. “Buildings may make you feel more secure, but that doesn’t mean they are secure.”