Chicago mayoral election: Candidates blast Lightfoot's record on public safety

CHICAGO - Chicago Alderwoman Sophia King and other challengers to Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted her record on public safety Wednesday at a forum sponsored by the Sun-Times and public radio.

The mayor blamed illegal guns and said she's working on it.

"You can collect all the guns you want, but if you're not making arrests you're not accomplishing anything, said Vallas. "Confiscate the guns and they go out and get more guns. Talk to any police officer when you walk out the door, and they will tell you exactly that."

"When they make – when they take those guns off the street, they are making arrests. This is dangerous, violent work that requires them to put themselves at risk," said Lightfoot.

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The forum was held at the Near West Side campus of the University of Illinois Chicago, where congressman Chuy Garcia noted he obtained two degrees.

He took Lightfoot and police Supt. David Brown to task for the police department's recent zigging and zagging on citywide police units.  Lightfoot's Administration initially moved to downgrade or disband them.  Then, when Brown was hired from Texas, they were beefed up.  Then, Brown began to shrink them again.

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"I would get rid of the citywide units and make people come back to the neighborhoods to patrol, to walk the beat, to talk to neighbors. Building trust is essential for greater public safety in Chicago because people have lost that trust.  And those citywide units have turned out not to be effective," said Garcia.

All nine of the candidates for mayor will face off on FOX 32 Chicago Thursday night.