A top Chicago police official took vacation earlier this month despite Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s order barring the department’s top leaders from taking time off over the traditionally violent summer months.
A Chicago police spokesman said the vacation was approved and paid for in October, long before Lightfoot became mayor, and that Superintendent Eddie Johnson blessed the time off.
The issue emerged at a Friday afternoon news conference where Lightfoot was asked whether First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio took vacation after the Memorial Day weekend.
“That would be incredibly disappointing to me if that happened because I gave a very specific directive that no exempt should be taking vacation during the summer,” Lightfoot said. “So, if that happened, that’ll be something that we have to have a serious conversation about.”
Lightfoot said she needs to learn more about the situation but said “the exempts” — meaning nonunion police officials — “have to set the example. And the example of doing something that the mayor has directed them not to do is highly problematic.”
In an email, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that Riccio “had a June 2019 family vacation that was approved and paid for in October of 2018, prior to the mayoral transition. Superintendent Johnson approved the first deputy taking this time off given arrangements were previously approved.”
Riccio was on his trip June 1-7, and he was “in town and working the weekend of Memorial Day and through the following week,” according to Guglielmi.
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Asked whether it’s appropriate for Riccio to take a preapproved vacation if Lightfoot specifically directed command staff not to take vacations during the summer, Guglielmi said, “The superintendent approved it given it was preauthorized and since Riccio would be in town working the Memorial Day deployment.”
Asked about the department’s explanation, a Lightfoot spokeswoman released a statement that said, “The mayor has made clear her expectations for the Chicago Police Department, and she has full confidence that every member will meet those standards going forward.”
A former federal prosecutor and corporate attorney, Lightfoot has been heavily involved in the movement for police accountability and reform and campaigned on a promise to reduce violent crime — frequently declaring that the city’s other problems can’t be addressed without that happening.
Since taking office, she’s called top police officials into her office for two “Accountability Mondays” meetings to review police strategy and tactics after violent weekends.
For Lightfoot, getting too involved with the Police Department’s day-to-day operations could become a political problem. In his bid to succeed Rahm Emanuel as mayor, former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy frequently complained that City Hall meddled with policing.