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By David Heinzmann
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A year after disbanding the scandal-plagued Special Operations Section, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis is launching a similar unit to fight gangs, according to a draft copy of an internal police memo obtained by the Tribune.
The new 115-officer unit will be known as the Mobile Strike Force, but its mission will be nearly identical to SOS.
Weis is even giving former SOS officers first crack at applying for the elite assignment, unless they are “subject to any serious disciplinary matters or confidential investigations” by the internal affairs division, the draft memo said.
SOS was disbanded last October amid a scandal over a team of officers who allegedly robbed and kidnapped victims for years under the guise of police work. Seven officers are awaiting trial on criminal charges. In addition, the U.S. attorney’s office is still investigating whether a police coverup allowed the rogue officers to operate despite mounting evidence of misconduct.
Weis, a former FBI official who was hired in part to clean up the department’s image in the wake of the SOS scandal, plans to launch the unit at the end of the month.
Police spokeswoman Monique Bond emphasized that the proposal is a draft but said strong oversight of the unit will be a priority.
Although police leaders acknowledged that SOS needed to be broken up because of the scandal, they’ve been hard-pressed to recapture the unit’s positive crime-fighting results as gang violence and the murder rate have risen by almost 15 percent.
Specialized units designed to fight gangs have been a double-edged sword for decades in the Chicago Police Department. Officers assigned to such units develop a high-level of expertise and intelligence in dealing with gangs and tend to make a lot of arrests and take violent drug dealers off the streets. Department leaders said they were key to a 25 percent drop in homicides in 2004.
But the relative freedom on the street given to the units has also fostered rogue tendencies in some instances and created a string of misconduct scandals.
To create the revamped unit, Weis has tapped Lt. Jim Roussell, a highly respected lieutenant who is also a Marine reservist with extensive battle and counter-insurgency experience in Iraq. In fact, in 2005 the Marines tapped Roussell to fight Iraqi insurgents partly because of his expertise with West Side street gangs. It is unclear whether Roussell will be chosen to lead the new group once it begins operation. Bond said Weis was out of town Monday and unavailable for comment.
In Weis’ draft memo dated Sept. 29 to his command staff, he said he planned to give the unit “broad discretion to operate” and vowed the department will be careful not to penalize officers based on allegations of misconduct, a hot-button issue in the department since the SOS scandal.
Copyright 2008 Chicago Tribune