Excerpts from nbchcicago.com:
In a dramatic and contentious meeting Wednesday, the Chicago City Council approved (38-8) a controversial plan to build a $95 million police and fire academy on the city’s West Side. City hall was crowded for hours with a large and raucous crowd of roughly 300 members of the public, mostly young activists opposed to the academy, and a police presence to match.
Proponents of the new state-of-the-art academy say it will better equip police to fight crime using 21st century tactics and technologies. But the academy’s opponents say it could further militarize the police force and that those millions of dollars should instead be used to reinvest in blighted communities.
The academy will be built on a vacant plot of land in West Garfield Park, located at 4301 W. Chicago Ave. Protestors in the upper viewing gallery could be heard chanting “Let us in!” through the early floor debate on the contract.
Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle said that as mayor, she “will not proceed with this project until we have a real conversation about public safety” and she commends the activists for speaking out.
Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot she doesn’t support the academy because communities weren’t consulted before drafting a proposal. She would support a bigger, more expensive facility that could attract all levels of law enforcement.
The city council awarded the building contract to multi-national engineering giant which has overseen a number of notable projects and who previously was forced to pay a $57.5 million settlement to the U.S. Department of Energy for using deficient materials in their building of a nuclear weapons facility in Washington, and a subsidiary was charged by federal prosecutors for fraudulently billing clients over 10 years.
