Hoping to free up more police officers to respond to shootings, carjackings and other serious crimes, a key City Council committee greenlit the development of a “no brainer” pilot program to assign parking-related 911 calls to the Finance Department rather than the Chicago Police Department.

The proposal came after an analysis in two police districts that found 10% of calls answered by police are related to parking violations, said lead sponsor Ald. Matt Martin (47th).

“At a time when we know we’re struggling to fill vacant positions, at a time when people, despite public safety stats moving in the right direction, still aren’t satisfied with the end results, I think that this is a common sense, meaningful next step that we can take,” Martin said.

The “alternative response model” would

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