Police Supt. Larry Snelling strongly reaffirmed his commitment to constitutional policing Friday, saying he convinced Mayor Brandon Johnson to reverse at least one of the cuts that could undermine the Chicago Police Department's effort to comply with a federal consent decree.To improve officer wellness and prevent police suicides, the police department needs a mental health clinician in every one of its 22 police districts, according to the department's initial budget request. Currently, only 13 districts have a clinician whom officers can talk to about the post-traumatic stress disorder they regularly experience.Initially, those nine positions were on the chopping block as part of the 3% cut in all city departments ordered by Johnson to erase a nearly $1 billion shortfall.But under questioning Friday at a City Council budget hearing, Snelling told Police Committee Chair Chris Taliaferro (29th) that the nine job cuts had been reversed.“When I was a commander of Englewood during civil unrest [and] COVID, our officers were suffering greatly," Snelling said. "When there was a clinician available, I threw my sergeant out of his office and gave the officers the opportunity to go in and have a conversation. It was very helpful. “The request in the budget was a clinician for each district. The cuts initially, I believe it was nine. But I’ve since had ... a deeper conversation with the mayor’s office. And that’s taken off the table now. We’re back to where we need to be because wellness is of the utmost importance.”Snelling said he knows firsthand how “extremely important” it is for officers to “have someone to talk to.”“The trauma that you face as a police officer is going to (police calls) and seeing abused children. Women who are victims of sexual assault in the most violent manner. Children who have been murdered,” Snelling said. “I still feel the death of a 2-year-old that I held back in 1993.”Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul warned this week that Chicago risks being held in contempt of court if Johnson insists on cutting 456 police vacancies in a way that would decimate spending and staff within the offices leading the police department's court-ordered reform push.Those cuts include a 45% reduction and the loss of 37 staffers in the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, and a 28% cut and 90 fewer jobs in the police department's Training and Support Group.Created after the 2014 fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald, the consent decree maps out how the city must reform its police department. The U.S. Justice Department report that preceded the 2019 decree focused heavily on officer wellness, finding that Chicago police had a 60% higher suicide rate than police in other major cities.In recent years, a wave of police suicides have roiled the department and prompted calls for more police resources.Despite the threat of being held in contempt, Johnson had not made any commitment to reverse the cuts that threaten to bog down Chicago’s already slow march toward reform.Snelling told the City Council Friday there is nothing more important than rebuilding trust between officers and residents.“This is an opportunity to create the best possible department that we can for our officers, for our city and for our citizens. It’s not just about a document. It’s about a culture change. It’s about a lifestyle, a way of life,” he said.Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) has said he won’t consider supporting Johnson’s $17.3 billion budget unless his Southwest Side residents get a new police station to ease the burden on a Chicago Lawn District that struggles to serve the second-largest geographic area with the fewest officers per capita.“There is a cost for doing nothing," Quinn warned. "People are just going to move out of the city. “We can’t shut the door on the residents of the Southwest Side," Quinn added. "The last time a police district boundary was changed was 1968. Hell, I wasn’t even alive then.”Snelling said a long-promised workforce allocation study finally underway could help make the case for a new district carved out of Chicago Lawn. It would be “helpful to us on a lot of things, including calls for service,” he said.Johnson eliminated 400 police vacancies in his first budget and 94 more in this year’s spending plan. That has left the department with 11,683 sworn officers, nearly 2,000 fewer than it had just a few years ago.Given the ongoing manpower shortage, Snelling said it’s important to reduce the number of officers on medical leave, which currently stands at 910, and eliminate any abuse of a sick leave policy that right now allows officers to take as many as 365 sick days every two years.“It is very important that we have a level of control over our medical section that we don’t have right now,” he said.“Medical integrity checks. Making sure that the system is not being abused. Making sure that individuals who are scheduled to show up at the medical section actually show up. We do need to do a deeper dive on the doctor situation. ...The Chicago Police Department needs to have more responsibility over the medical section and how the medical section is being run,” he said.Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) said she’d love to work with Snelling on those long overdue reforms.“When I heard the number was 910 [officers], and there’s only one doctor that oversees all 910 cases in the police department and over 200 in the fire department, that was concerning to me,” she said.