Chicago Applied for Grant Money to Hire More Cops

City officials last year applied for a federal grant that would have allowed them to add more than 1,700 new police officers to the rank and file, NBC Chicago has learned.

That's more than 300 more than was called for by a Chicago Crime Commission opinion released last September. 

A police spokesman said he wasn't aware of the grant application so it's unclear if it's still being processed or was denied. Still, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Supt. Garry McCarthy have repeatedly said that hiring new officers wasn't  necessary. The department currently has about 12,000 sworn officers.

"This is acknowledging that they actually lied to the public and they lied to us," Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields said Friday. "The Fraternal Order of Police has stood by the 13,500 [staffing number]. You've seen other groups come out saying that the correct amount is 13,500. ...  Now, you see in documents filed for federal grant assistance for more police they're asking for seventeen hundred more, which actually brings them up to greater than 13,500.

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