Canceling Chicago police officers’ days off before DNC is ‘a recipe for disaster,’ union boss says

The leader of Chicago’s largest police union is warning CPD brass that renewed reliance on canceling officers’ days off will tank morale ahead of the Democratic National Convention, when the eyes of the world will be watching how they respond to demonstrations and gun violence.

John Catanzara, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, recently lambasted Chief of Patrol Jon Hein for allegedly directing other supervisors to “cancel whoever’s days off you need to."

Catanzara insisted that Hein was "on a warpath" and he urged Police Supt. Larry Snelling to step in.

“Unless the superintendent reins this nonsense in, morale is about to start fading away really fast … before the huge convention that is going to turn this city upside down on its head,” he said in a YouTube video on June 28.

Ahead of Memorial Day, Snelling told reporters that his administration would “be judicious” about cancelling officers’ regular days off and would give them “advanced notice so that they can plan around those changes.”

But in recent weeks, as gun violence has spiked and police resources have been stretched thin by special events, the department has again relied on the controversial practice, aimed at addressing longstanding staffing woes.

Former Supt. David Brown faced sharp criticism for canceling days off, and concerns grew as a wave of suicides impacted the department.

When Snelling addressed the violent Fourth of July weekend on Monday, he told reporters that day-off cancellations had fallen by roughly 70% this year but acknowledged that cutting time off is sometimes necessary.

“It’s not just canceling days off just to cancel days off,” Snelling said. “It’s to make sure that our officers have enough manpower out there to deal with the situation at hand and make sure that they keep down to violence.”

Catanzara told the Sun-Times that police leaders are effectively creating “a recipe for disaster, especially with the DNC coming to town and all the insanity that’s going to surround that.”

“No matter what, it’s going to be a s--- show. I don’t care how they try to sell it,” said Catanzara, who has been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, the Republican seeking a second term in the White House.

A police spokesperson said the department “prioritizes the wellbeing of our officers when utilizing regular day off cancellations.” Officers are now given advance notice when a day off is being canceled — 28 and 14 days before.

“Following the announcement that Chicago would be the host city for the DNC, department leadership continuously communicated that additional [regular day off] cancellations were expected this summer during the operational period related to the DNC,” the spokesperson said.

“The decision to cancel days off is not made lightly, and [regular day off cancellations] are only utilized to ensure we have sufficient staffing throughout our city during major holidays and large-scale events.”

A familiar issue

The convention is primed to become the police department’s biggest test since the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 gave way to widespread protests and sparked waves of looting and violence.

Reports detailing the troubled police response included pointed criticism of the department’s practice of canceling days off.

A scathing report by the city’s inspector general’s office — which found the department had been “outflanked, under-equipped and unprepared” — noted that former Mayor Lori Lightfoot had raised serious concerns about the strain placed on officers.

“You can’t keep canceling people’s days off and making them work 12-hour shifts back to back to back and expect that they are going to perform at their highest and best,” Lightfoot was quoted as saying. “They were not trained to handle this kind of circumstance, the stress, the abuse.”

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg has since raised alarms about the police department’s preparations for the Democratic convention, which is scheduled for Aug. 19-22.

In another report, the independent monitor overseeing the department’s compliance with court-ordered reforms noted that “extended shifts and canceled days off put significant stress on officers and their families.”

The monitor, Maggie Hickey, has said recently that police officials must “not lose focus” on reform as the event nears.

‘The buck stops with the superintendent’

Catanzara’s beef with the police brass extends beyond the day-off cancellations. He said the FOP plans to file an unfair labor practice complaint against Chief Hein for “direct dealing” with some officers who have agreed to work 10-hour shifts without consulting with the union. Shifts for most officers are typically 8.5 hours.

Catanzara said the schedule changes impact bicycle officers who patrol the downtown area and members of the Central Control Group, which oversees public safety operations in that part of the city and was previously led by Hein.

Protests often crop up downtown, and bicycle officers are typically integral to the police response. Working longer days means the officers will in effect have more days off, which Catanzara noted can then be canceled.

“If you’ve got three days off and they’re gonna cancel one of them at least, the thought is coppers aren’t going to complain so much,” Catanzara said.

While he has taken clear aim at Hein, Catanzara acknowledged “the buck stops with the superintendent.”

“This administration is clearly no different from the last, and that includes this superintendent,” he said. “Unless he’s going to say, I had no idea this was going on — which I don’t think he can. But if he does, great. Then what are you going to do about it now that you know?”