Chicago Police Restrict Time Off For Cops As Mayor Threatens To Put Half The Force On Unpaid Leave Over Vaccine Mandate

The Chicago Police Department announced on Saturday that officers will be restricted from taking “elective time off” until further notice.

Although no reason was given for the decision in the memo to officers, the news comes amid twin crises for the Chicago Police Department: a skyrocketing rate of violence and a showdown between officers and Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot over the city’s vaccine mandate.

“A memo issued Saturday said elective time off for officers will be restricted, and will require the approval of a supervisor with a rank of deputy chief of higher within the officer’s chain of command,” CBS Chicago reported over the weekend. “A statement to be read at officer roll calls did not specify the reason for the restriction. But it comes amid a standoff between City Hall and the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police over the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.”

The city’s teachers union and Chicago city workers have also asked for a relaxation of the city’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all municipal employees, according to the teaching news site, ChalkBeat. So far, though, the mayor’s office will agree only to postpone the vaccine deadline until the end of 2021, and those city employees who choose not to receive the vaccine before then must be tested for COVID-19 twice weekly until they get the shot.