Chicago City Wire

Lt. John Garrido III expects as many as 1,500 Chicago Police officers – around 10% of the current force – to resign following the election of Brandon Johnson. Garrido is formerly an officer with the Chicago Police Department’s 16th District. 

“You know, Chicago voters never fail to disappoint,” Garrido told Fox News. “Unfortunately we had a million voters stay home again and just threw their hands up in the air and said that they don't care about crime in our city. They don't care about increases in taxes. You know, what they don't realize is these things need to be a priority and they should be a priority. And while we'd always love to, you know, when the new guy comes in, you want to give him an opportunity, you give him a chance and see how they're going to do.” 

“The problem is, is this is the same old story, but it sounds worse, the rhetoric that we've heard. There's video after video of what his positions are on the police. And he's a product of the Chicago Teachers Union who has never been a fan of the police. So it's disappointing. It's going to remain to be seen what he does, who he puts in for leadership to see if he's going to make any changes. But I already know several officers who were waiting to see what this election was going to turn out like, and they've already put their papers in it yesterday to retire.” 

“We hope that it's just campaign rhetoric. We hope that once he's in office and realizes the importance of the police department and funding the department, you know, hopefully, you know, something will change. The problem is, is we don't have a whole lot we don't hold out a lot of hope right now because it just based on the things that he said and the actions of the Chicago Teachers Union in the past towards the Chicago Police Department, it doesn't look good.”

Johnson has vowed to replace cops with social workers. 

“That's this whole idea of taking money from the police budget because they feel that there's a lot of money there and they want to come up with all these other ideas. If you want to send counselors out, that's fine. Send them out. But you're still going to have to send police officers. So by taking money away from the police department and reducing the number of officers, you can't send these social workers out on their own,” Garrido said. 


Garrido: ‘Unfortunately we had a million voters stay home again and just threw their hands up in the air.’

The Chicago Police Force currently has a budget for 13,108 officers. In July 2022 the city employed 12,261 officers. It is the second largest police force in the United States, after New York City.

Other items of immediate interest for the Johnson administration include raising taxes, allowing illegal immigrants to vote in school board elections, protecting abortion rights and “ending misgendering in official records.”

Mayor-elect Johnson, a BLM supporter, previously proposed to defund the city’s police force, something he vehemently denied during the campaign despite video of direct comments on the matter used by opponent Paul Vallas. 

As Cook County Commissioner for the 1st District in 2020 Johnson advocated for the Justice for Black Lives resolution which he introduced. 

“This resolution is the first step in a series of measures designed to bring justice, equity and equal protection under the law in the second largest county in the nation,” Johnson said in a statement at the time. The resolution stated that Cook County “shall redirect money from the failed and racist systems of policing, criminalization, and incarceration that have not kept our communities safe, and will instead invest that money in public services not administered by law enforcement that promote community health and safety equitably across the county, but especially in Black and Brown communities most impacted by violence and incarceration."

The Chicago Contrarian also noted Garrdio’s view. 

“Commenting on @Brandon4Chicago's election, John Garrido expressed a grim outlook for policing in Chicago. Citing Johnson's views on policing, his ties to @CTULocal1, and the CTU's hostility with CPD, Garrido predicts between 1000-1500 officers will leave CPD this year,” the Chicago Contrarian said on Twitter.