Fresh CPD data: No, Chief Brown, carjackings are not down in Chicago. Not any more. – Wirepoints

By: Matt Rosenberg

We reported yesterday that motor vehicle thefts have jumped by 47 percent so far this year versus 2019. But carjackings – which unlike car thefts involve use of force against the vehicle’s owner – remain a big problem in Chicago, as well. Earlier this year, Police Chief David Brown trumpeted a decline in carjackings versus last year to date. That’s not the case any more.

Chicago Police Department data provided to Wirepoints this week show that carjackings in Chicago through April 27 of this year numbered 553. That’s almost 5 per day.

That compares with 521 to the same point in 2021 and 256 in 2020. Year-to-date data for carjackings in 2019 were not made available.

Still, the direction of things is clear. The problem was supposed to recede along with Covid. But it hasn’t. Carjackings in Chicago through April 27 are up 116 percent over the same stretch in 2020, and up 6 percent from last year. 

The Chicago Police Department confirms that because of federal crime-coding procedures, carjackings are not included under any category in CPD’s weekly online Compstat crime reports

Through last Sunday and versus almost the same span in 2020, CPD reports that overall crime, not including carjackings, was up 23 percent versus two years ago. Shooting incidents were up 16 percent. Murders climbed 13 percent, thefts 40 percent, and robberies 8 percent. Aggravated battery and burglary declined.

None of these increases are a good thing. But they are dwarfed by the 116 percent rise in carjackings. They should be a bigger priority for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.  

It’s true that other crimes, such as robbery and burglary, committed so far this year are far more numerous. But carjacking is a particularly horrific crime. To have armed gunmen approach your vehicle and take it from you by force leaves a lasting residue of terror. And carjackings have a nasty habit of turning into murder.

“This has changed the way I look at the city”

Carjacking changes perceptions about living in Chicago and visiting and spending money there. One victim told CBS-TV, “This has changed…the way I look at the city, and the people around me.” Carjackings in Chicago can also lead to murder. How many such tragic instances are too many? 

There was Dwain Willams, 65, a retired firefighter, father of four, and mentor to young black men seeking careers as Emergency Medical Technicians. Killed during a Chicago carjacking.

Likewise, Shuai Guan. A young married man with a new baby. 

And Keith Cooper, a 73-old veteran and grandfather. 

Will McGee was eighteen, and a homecoming king at his high school on the South Side. He was headed for the military after graduation. He was slain after surrendering his vehicle to carjackers. He was walking away but still got shot dead. In the back. On Veterans Day.

Just this month a 61-year-old man was left in a coma after a brutal beating during a suspected carjacking.

These victims of Chicago carjackers were all non-white. As are more than 90 percent of Chicago’s murder victims.

Wanted: solutions

Mayor Lightfoot in February claimed Chicago’s spike in carjackings stemmed from the virus and its effects on juveniles, who could not go to school. The theory had been outlined in June of 2021 by University of Chicago researchers.

But while the virus has receded, and mask mandates and remote learning have ended, carjackings are stubbornly running slightly ahead of 2021’s dramatic pace. 

So now what? WBEZ-FM reported that U of C researchers have a new theory. Now, it’s not Covid and kids, anymore. 

It’s that perpetrators may more often be adults looking to disassemble the vehicles and sell the parts. They say that’s because less than one in five carjacked vehicles are recovered. The suggestion is that carjacked Chicago vehicles have been “disappeared” to chop shops. Researchers speculate this is more likely something that adult criminals would arrange, than juveniles.

Perhaps so, perhaps not. But in any case, we need carjackers to be caught, punished, and deterred. That’s not happening. Of those arrested in connection with carjacking few end up facing felony carjacking charges: only 14 percent in 2020. And as we’ve reported here, there’s been no-drop off from the stark climb in carjackings.

Chicago is often said to resemble the Wild West. And as a result of becoming carjacking victims, last year some Chicagoans bought their first guns and began taking target practice.

The studies will doubtless continue. But in the meantime one thing is clear: no one should have to be scared to take their car into the city.

Read more from Wirepoints:

18 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Byron Rivers
1 year ago

On the suspected phenomenon of carjackers now being carried out by adults, my first thought is that the minors were the nose of the camel under the tent. And now adults have tied into criminal organizations which make the crime a lot less temporary.

More proof that lockdowns were a mistake with unanticipated results that we’ll be fighting off for the rest of our lives.

Last edited 1 year ago by Byron Rivers
Jerald L Dyson
1 year ago

Thanks to Wirepoints and writers like Matt Rosenberg, the public is being kept up to date on crime in Chicago. One would think it would be a priority of the police brass, elected officials and prosecutors to make the city safer for it’s residents, but that does not seem to be the case. I am willing to bet that a huge percentage of crimes, like car jacking and assault and murder are perpetrated by repeat offenders. That does not seem to matter when these people are captured and released. More time and energy is spent coddling criminals than is spent… Read more »

ivan
1 year ago

Car jacking creates a heightened threat of violence and death by the very up in your face nature of the crime.

James Stramaglia
1 year ago

“Our nation’s big cities are broken. Urban progressive government badly undermines those it claims to lift up.” – back cover of WHAT NEXT, CHICAGO?

So far still no answer. There cannot be recovery from this catastrophic failure without changing its leaders.

Rick
1 year ago

You and your wife are walking back to your car after having a dinner downtown. You hear chatter and footsteps behind you, following you. You get to your car. At that moment you feel a 9mm pressed against your kidney… Have fun downtown everybody!

Dan Ehrman
1 year ago

Chicago’s “Summer of Joy”riding appears to be in full swing.
If local government can’t handle it we need federal intervention.
Small government is better than no government guised in big government.

Tom Jurich
1 year ago

Can’t walk, can’t take public transportation and can’t drive your car in the city. I reason to be there and spend any of my money.

Last edited 1 year ago by Tom Jurich
Mil Ovan
1 year ago

Matt, another terrific article. The statistics are appalling and sobering. The root of the problem is covered many times in your excellent book. I have put cameras in my cars and I have vehicle trackers, recognizing that this problem is only getting worse. One has to keep their head on a swivel and not get distracted, and think of escape routes if someone comes to bump you from the rear wanting you to get out of your car.

Thee Jabroni
1 year ago
Reply to  Mil Ovan

or carry a 9mm like i do

Byron Rivers
1 year ago
Reply to  Thee Jabroni

But it’s always better to never have to experience the encounter.

Doug
1 year ago

Nothing but excuses from Lightweight and the so called “leaders” who for decades, have all championed the same failed policies that create rudderless thugs who prey on law abiding citizens. You want to talk about systemic racism? Do let’s! Democrats run every single system responsible for creating ghetto criminal behavior. People who value their own lives and the lives of others don’t steal a stranger’s car at gun point. Race doesn’t cause it. Culture does. Nothing in the democrat playbook will address the failed culture of fatherlessness that is the number one common denominator in all violent crime. The political… Read more »

jaye els
1 year ago

This is another solid article documenting the terrifying increase in carjackings that often led to manslaughter and murder. Thank you Matt for giving some specific tragic cases of car jackings that did lead to killings of real, good men like: Keith Cooper, a 73-old veteran and grandfather As arguably THE most violent, evil man in the 20th century Joseph Stalin said in response to reports that over 1 million farmers had died of famine in the Ukraine during the forced collectivization of private farm land The Holodomor: “One death is a tragedy but a million deaths is just a statistic”… Read more »

chicago-1 2.jpg
1 year ago
Reply to  jaye els

I wonder, what kind of punishment will Keith Cooper’s alleged killers get if they are convicted? What are case outcomes data in the aggregate by different type of felony crimes in Cook County? Whether via plea deals and convictions. What are rates of convictions versus acquittals in trial cases? No one should have to file public records requests or sort through .csv databases to extract this data. It should be online in plain format and regularly updated. But the law and politics as usual behind the scenes gird opacity, not transparency.

Karen
1 year ago

One watches the wilding videos and reads of escalating numbers of carjackings, it seems on a daily basis. Why are these thugs feeling empowered? And to mayor Lightfoot: stop employing the same useless tactics, because the crime trend is not going down–or going away. Forget your fragile ego and focus on the safety of your citizens! Ths=at should be your priority!

NiteCat
1 year ago

Dang, just 6 months shy of being age exempted I got called for jury duty at the Federal Building…refuse to go into the city anymore because of this and all the other unchecked criminal activity. Got an extension to plead for a change of venue. I’ve always been called to a suburban location, now suddenly everyone is being called to Chicago. Fingers crossed. Still won’t go if it fails, they can come and arrest me. A couple months ago hubby got called to downtown too and forgot he could have been age exempted. We never, ever get called to JD… Read more »

Platinum Goose
1 year ago
Reply to  NiteCat

Interesting, doesn’t some of that come from the voter roles. What do they do about all the dead people that get called for jury duty.

HeywoodJaBlome
1 year ago

Will the powers to be EVER state the obvious, the elephant in the room, the facts, the truth about a particular ethnicity that is responsible for the violent crime problems in Chicago and all major cities across the country?

vb
1 year ago
Reply to  HeywoodJaBlome

Statistics are racist. Our leaders say “crime is up everywhere”. No, crime is up for a certain ethnicity everywhere. Might have something to do with that ethnicity feeling entitled to do whatever they want, or there will be burning, looting, and mayhem.

SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER

Home Page Signup
First
Last
Check all you would like to receive:

FOLLOW US

 

WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES

A statewide concern: Illinois’ population decline outpaces neighboring states – Wirepoints on ABC20 Champaign

“We are not in good shape” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski told ABC 20 Champaign during a segment on Illinois’ latest population losses. Illinois was one of just three states to shrink in the 2010-2020 period and has lost another 300,000 people since then. Ted says things need to change. “It’s too expensive to live here, there aren’t enough good jobs and nobody trusts the government anymore. There’s just other places to go where you can be more satisfied.”

Read More »

WE’RE A NONPROFIT AND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS ARE DEDUCTIBLE.

SEARCH ALL HISTORY

CONTACT / TERMS OF USE