Chicago officials outline safety precautions ahead of Labor Day weekend

Officials in Chicago are preparing for any potential crime and violence over the holiday weekend, asking cops to work extra hours and, in some cases taking extra measures to thwart any potential threats, authorities said. 

On the heels of a violent summer, police in certain areas have issued warnings about the precautions their agencies will be taking to ensure the public is safe during the Labor Day weekend.

Officers from the Chicago Police Department will continue to work 12-hour shifts, as opposed to the eight-hour norm, and are not allowed any days off, CPD Superintendent David Brown said during a Friday morning press conference.

“We are extending hours, we are canceling our days off, that’s put 8,000 officers on the streets of Chicago over the next several days,” Brown said.

The policy will extend through Tuesday and will be accompanied by further safety and crime-prevention tactics, such as the use of extra barriers to prevent looting in some retail areas, such as the city’s downtown area, Brown said.

Police stand guard as pro and anti-police demonstrators are expected to gather outside of the Homan Square police station on August 15, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“We’ve put together our protection plan of our retail corridors, that not only utilizes police officers not in our retail corridors, but also we utilize barriers, make some of our streets in our downtown area more pedestrian, less vehicular,” he said. “Caravanning of cars to loot was a significant challenge a few weeks back, so this helps us not only protect tour downtown from a barrier feature standpoint.”

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The department will be monitoring open-source social media activity – anything that can be accessed on public social media channels, for any signs of potential instances of looting or other crimes. CPD will be working with other city agencies in the processing of preventing crimes and protecting the public, he said.

“We’re using not only our police officers, but we’re using our other departments – our water, streets and sand – all their vehicles help us create the same kinds of barricades for ingress and egress to those corridors so that we can protect it,” Brown added.

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