CHICAGO — The Chicago Police Department will add nearly 1,000 positions over the next two years, its superintendent announced Wednesday, to help the city deal with a dramatic increase in shootings and homicides. But it wasn’t clear where the money will come from in a city that’s grappling with financial woes that threaten basic services.
At a news conference, Superintendent Eddie Johnson said that he asked for additional officers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel ‘‘delivered.’’ The department presented a plan, which will start in January 2017, to add 516 new officers, 92 field-training officers, 200 detectives, 112 sergeants, and 50 lieutenants.
The department currently has about 12,500 officers; Johnson said vacancies will be filled on top of the new hires.
‘‘I’m confident that these added resources will make us better,’’ Johnson said. He also acknowledged the department’s issues and said accountability is key. ‘‘We’ll train and mentor officers who make honest mistakes, but I will not tolerate intentional misconduct,’’ he said.
He did not explain how the financially strapped city will pay for the force’s largest hiring effort in years. Emanuel’s office did not immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
‘‘That is a question that remains unanswered,’’ Alderman Danny Solis said.
The plan marks a departure for Emanuel, who has relied on overtime — more than $100 million annually in recent years — arguing that it was effective and less expensive than hiring more officers. On Wednesday, Solis, fellow Alderman Howard Brookins Jr., and others argued that whatever the cost of hiring so many officers, it would certainly mean the bill for police overtime would fall.
The city has had more than 500 homicides this year — more than in all of 2015 — and is on pace to climb past 600 for the first time since 2003. There have also been more than 2,500 shootings this year, about 700 more than in the same time period last year.
And there have been signs the department has had a difficult time keeping up with crime; the percentage of homicides solved has dropped.
