The City Council tonight approved spending nearly $190,000 on increased police operations this summer.
Police Chief Richard Eddington said the program will target both city-wide and neighborhood quality of life issues.
Much of the effort will be tied to enforcing the city’s new earlier curfew for young people, which the chief said will officially goes into effect on May 22.
The ordinance sets curfew hours of 10 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday nights and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, to match a curfew change enacted by Chicago earlier this year.
The plan includes adding two additional city-wide squad cars overnight, from 8:15 p.m. to 4:45 a.m., and two additional two-officer squad cars downtown on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.
In addition, the chief said, the department has been able to hire three new employees to bring its staff of youth outreach street workers back to a total of four.