Chicago City Wire

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s reluctance to prosecute and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s lack of a concrete response to rising crime is paying dividends for the city in all the wrong ways.

A new report from the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) shows that violent crime continues to rise in Chicago, with robberies up 21 percent in just one year – and with arrests down.

“Chicagoans reported 7.6% more violent crime from July 2023 through June 2024,” the IPI report said. “Residents experienced a 21% increase in robberies during those 12 months, with robberies becoming one-third of all violent crimes.

“Residents reported 29,522 violent crimes through June,” the report continued. “But as cases of violent crime hit their highest level in the past five years, the arrest rate for these felonies declined to 10.8%, the lowest level in the past five years.”

Chicago is now the “crime capital of the world” and “tops the nation in youth crime," former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas wrote in a recent commentary. “Chicago needs a real crime strategy. It must restore police strength. It must hold criminals responsible. It must offer safety that puts the city’s low-income families at ease.”

Vallas went on to say that Chicago needs a Public Safety Act that gives both the police and Chicagoans the tools to at least stem the rise in crime.

The city could include crimes of hate, domestic violence, weapons violations and threats against witnesses and victims in its ordinances, according to Vallas. The city safety act could cover possession of stolen vehicles, robbery, burglary, theft and retail theft for items over $1,000 value. The city can impose a maximum sentence of six months in jail, including fines and terms of probation.

He also blames the SAFE-T Act, the overhaul of the criminal justice system that took effect in January 2023. Among other changes, SAFE-T eliminated cash bail, and removed the requirement that those filing complaints against the police must include sworn affidavits with their complaints.

“Until we have a new state’s attorney and other leaders who focus on protecting the public, the calamitous SAFE-T Act will wreak havoc,” he said. “These provisions offer too many loopholes. Under the current versions, individuals have the ability to serve their sentence, in some cases even for murder, from the comfort of their homes by leveraging 'good time credit' they receive for their time on electronic monitoring. And, more disturbingly, to obtain a 48-hour period free of monitoring each week. This will in effect allow offenders to harass and intimidate their victims and the witnesses.

Meanwhile, Mayor Johnson’s proposed 2024 budget would eliminate 833 police positions.  

For her part, Foxx dismissed 30 percent of the felony cases presented to her during her first three years in office. This included 6.1% of aggravated firearm battery offenses, 8.1% of homicides, 8.1% of aggravated battery attacks on police, and 9.5% percent of felony sex crimes.

An IPI poll conducted in February shows that 66% of voters disapproving to some degree, with half strongly disapproving, of Mayor Johnson's approach to handling crime.