Roughly 80% of all reports of stolen/lost Chicago Fire Department badges occur within a few months of the badge’s owner retiring.
That’s the finding of Chicago’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which suggested that the reason for the statistical anomaly could be that firefighters actually lost the badges earlier but held off reporting until they were planning to retire, when they would have to surrender the badge.
Or, the OIG suggests, firefighters may be reporting the badges as stolen so they can keep them after retirement, rather than buy a retiree badge.
Mandating that badges be reported missing within 24 hours of their disappearance and making firefighters pay for lost badges were the OIG’s suggested remedies, which the Fire Department embraced.
The OIG’s full report is downloadable here.
