How come they wrote off so many characters?
Chickie, Salinger, Lydia's many partners, probably a few other people too. No explanation for any of them as I can recall.
Budget concerns. But I agree they could have given an on-scree reason for their disappearences.
We can guess about Chickie though. It's mentioned early in the show that she has applied for SWAT. So I atleast, hope that's where she ended up.