N.J. Chief Picked as Chicago Police Head

Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel today will introduce Newark, N.J. , police chief Garry McCarthy as Chicago's new police superintendent, sources said, gambling that McCarthy's big city experience will overcome the fact that he is another outsider.

McCarthy replaces Jody Weis, a career FBI agent who rank and file police officers never accepted because they viewed him as an outsider who didn't have their backs.

Last week, McCarthy, who will celebrate his 52nd birthday later this week, demonstrated that he is keenly aware of the morale problems he is inheriting.

He told the Sun-Times that he would not put on the Chicago Police Department's uniform without first earning the right to do so by getting certified as an Illinois law enforcement officer.

But it's going to take a lot more than that to restore morale that flagged under Weis.

Police Board President Demetrius Carney believes that the second-generation cop has the police pedigree to do that.

He said McCarthy walked a beat and commanded three separate New York City precincts before becoming the chief architect of the Big Apple's crime control strategy.

"He is an outsider. But this time, that outsider is not from the FBI. This is an outsider who understands policing and understands the plight of beat patrol," Carney said.

Sources said what sold Emanuel was McCarthy's 30 years of experience leading big-city departments and his proven track record of implementing innovative strategies that worked to reduce crime.

As the New York City Police Department's former operations chief, McCarthy was the force behind the CompStat program credited with reducing New York's homicide rate. Under the program, police commanders are called before a review board on a monthly basis and held accountable for crime spikes.

McCarthy also helped call the shots in New York after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

As police director in Newark since 2006, McCarthy's strategies to combat narcotics and gun violence have been credited with producing a 12 percent reduction in overall crime, a 40 percent decline in shooting incidents and homicides and a 23 percent cut in civilian complaints against his officers.

In Chicago, McCarthy inherits a Police Department more than 2,300 officers a day short of authorized strength. Emanuel has promised to bolster the number of street officers by 1,000.