By: Matt Rosenberg
The 102nd General Assembly of Illinois ended in the early hours of Saturday April 9 and Illinois Supermajority Democrats approved new spending and laws they say will boost public safety. With 2022 elections approaching and Cook County homicides in excess of 1,000 for the first time in 28 years, they needed to show movement on crime. It was a largely cosmetic crime bill package designed for campaign brochures. Worse, it did material harm by failing to unwind anti-cop, pro-criminal measures within a larger criminal justice “reform” bill approved last year.
Key session outcomes included $10 million for police recruitment and retention by police departments statewide. An anti-carjacking grant program. A crime reduction task force.
Do-nothing strategies meant to look like something.
There was also a boatload of money for violence prevention programs; new language codifying the felonies of organized retail crime; and more expressway cameras.
All of modest effect, at best.
Lawmakers should have been bolder. They should have rescinded harmful legislative provisions already approved that threaten the job security and allegiance of cops to local departments in Illinois, and which prevent prosecutors from charging juveniles as adults for carjacking.
Their biggest failure was in declining to repeal provisions in their enacted 2021 criminal justice “reform” bill that are hostile to police and public safety. These include: additional barriers to cash bail for violent criminals as of 2023; reduced post-prison supervision of Class X, Class 1, and Class 2 felons; green-lighting anonymous officer decertification complaints to the state; rescinding required sworn affidavits for local complaints against police; and establishing a state review process for possibly removing the legal shield – called “qualified immunity” – that cities provide to police officers. Qualified immunity protects police from paying damages if they lose lawsuits alleging their split-second discretionary actions deprived defendants of “clearly established” civil rights.
Trying to undo damage already done, legislators included $10 million in the state budget for grants to towns, universities and nonprofits to hire and retain police officers. The framework for that was detailed in the approved measure HB 3863. But it’s unclear that new recruitment and retention spending will make much difference.
According to the Illinois Police Chiefs Association police resignations in local departments in the state were up 65 percent in 2021 versus the prior year, compared to 45 percent nationwide. The chiefs group also noted local police staffing across the state ranges from 10 to 25 percent below authorized levels, and recruitment of new officers is at a 30-year-low.
Carjackings and Organized Retail Crime
Lawmakers this session also approved HB 3699, which adds to an existing state council’s scope of work the issuance of grants to combat carjackings. Driven substantially by juveniles, carjackings grew to a shocking 1,852 in 2021 in Chicago. The new legislation specifically does not reverse a measure approved by lawmakers in 2015 to rescind from county prosecutors the ability to charge juveniles as adults for armed vehicular carjacking. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle successfully lobbied in favor of that bill. It was an error born of the “social justice” agenda which has so badly warped criminal justice in Illinois. That it was an egregious error becomes evident with each passing week in Chicago.
State Rep. Deanna Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) criticized the HB 3699 anti-carjacking grant program and earlier Democratic moves to prevent prosecution of juvenile carjackers as adults.
She said, “This body has made policy choices that is making carjacking, including organized carjacking, including by juveniles…that much easier…And it’s sad that we’re here on the last day of session and not a single piece of legislation has been proposed by the majority party to help the various (people) who are being attacked through these carjackings…and this is the best you can do. A grant program for a state council.”
The final budget also included nearly one-quarter of a billion dollars for violence prevention and youth intervention programs. While there are anecdotal success stories resulting from such programs, data demonstrating their effectiveness is elusive in Chicago. The city dispensed upwards of $50 million to local violence prevention programs in 2021. But murders hit a 25-year high; while carjackings, shootings, expressway shootings, and transit crime climbed precipitously. A hypothesis is not a solution.
Lawmakers also approved HB 1091 and its Senate Floor Amendment 4 detailing for the first time what offenses are defined as organized retail crime and making them punishable as Class Two, Class Three, or Class Four felonies. The law specifies that organized retail crime is committed when there is: theft with intent to resell; theft by two or more people; or theft of goods in transit from a manufacturer. The definition also includes knowingly receiving, buying, or purchasing stolen retail merchandise, or when parties conspire, recruit, finance or organize retail crime. The Illinois Attorney General would be granted authority to investigate, charge, and prosecute for organized retail theft, under the Statewide Grand Jury Act. This was a reasonable step forward.
But could this turn into an excuse to let the little guys go? Overall retail theft in Illinois was estimated at $3.7 billion to $4 billion in 2020. What data has been made public is alarming: in Chicago retail theft arrest rates dropped from 54 percent in 2016 to 18 percent in 2021. Prosecution rates for retail theft in Cook County hovered above or near 85 percent from 2012 through 2016 but then plummeted for three years to below 40 percent after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx took office in 2017. By the end of 2021 they’d climbed back to 57 percent.
Expressway Cameras And Crime Reduction Task Force
Additional powers were granted to the State Attorney General in another bill that was approved, HB 1103. Its Amendment 3 will expand into 21 more counties the state network of high-resolution expressway cameras to view the license plates and thus track fleeing felons in vehicles including expressway shooters. The bill includes a stipulation that the Illinois Attorney General or the local State’s Attorney can prosecute forcible felonies, gun-running or firearms trafficking committed on state-monitored expressways.
To date, high-resolution cameras on state expressways, which are under the jurisdiction of Illinois State Police, have operated mainly in Cook County. There were 273 expressway shootings in 2021 on state highways in Cook County, more than five times greater than the 51 in 2019. Some 100 state expressway cameras are in operation but another 200 were already planned for installation this summer, from an earlier appropriation of $12.5 million.
The counties added to the expressway camera network under the bill are Boone, Bureau, Champaign, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Henry, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Macon, Madison, McHenry, Morgan, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Will, and Winnebago.
Additional funds to add cameras in the new counties would be taken from existing money pools at either the state tollway authority or the state transportation department’s road fund, according to the legislation.
One’s heart goes out to families of expressway shooting victims. Some of them were behind the original push for the high-def cameras which might help catch perps. But as cameras grew greatly in Cook County in the last few years, so did expressway shootings. The deterrent effect was absent; reversed, even. They exemplify a cold reality: technology-driven responses to crime are but band-aids to problems of human conduct. Get back to basics. Let’s raise young men who don’t settle their differences with guns on the expressway.
The politics of the bill also somewhat stank. Mazzochi had sharp criticism for it in a floor speech. She said similar legislation she introduced last year for new cameras on state highways and tollways mainly just in DuPage County was blocked, and aides to Governor J.B. Pritzker told her “they couldn’t implement it, they couldn’t maintain it, and they said this is going to be too expensive for them to do.” Now in contrast, she said, this far more sweeping expressway camera bill “is only moving because Governor Pritzker and the majority party want a sound bite to feed you about how they’re going to keep you safe.”
Democrats defended their crime bills. State Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) praised the legislative package and related funding. “The budget lays out a major spending plan for crucial public safety initiatives and programs to support the areas ravaged by violence…I’m proud of the funding allocated in this budget that invests in the tools law enforcement needs to prevent and solve crimes to keep communities safe. Our number one priority as a legislative body is the safety of the communities…we serve.”
Lawmakers also approved HB 4736 and Senate Floor Amendment 1 to create a Crime Reduction Task Force that would “develop and propose ways to reduce crime across the state.” Legislators, law enforcement, policy experts, victims and witnesses would “review research and best practices while taking expert and witness testimony” and then issue findings and recommendations to lawmakers and the Governor by March 1 of next year.
When in doubt, create a task force. One more task force report to add to a shelf groaning with the weight of earlier such volumes. There was an insulting cynicism evident in this measure. As Neil Young once sang, “Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere.” But “So what? It’ll do for now,” said lawmakers.
This past weekend as the legislature finished its budget and crime package and adjourned, Chicago was reminded of the disconnect between officialdom and the city’s hard streets. Communities were gripped by more of the rampant crime that has put Mayor Lightfoot, the City Council, and state lawmakers on the hook to do more than natter around the edges of the problem.
Michigan Avenue Has A Cancer
As a spate of carjackings unfolded in recent days downtown, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said about six of every ten are by juveniles. “We are seeing young people doing multiple carjackings, that have done 3, 4, 5 different carjackings. Juvenile courts are having a very tough time holding them for very long, because no one has the appetite in the juvenile court system to incarcerate our young people.”
It’s a sharp reminder of the roles of the legislature, and Cook County prosecutors and judges, in decriminalizing carjacking with juvenile charges for adult mayhem, easy release on bail, and weak sentencing.
Cook County Treasurer and Democrat Maria Pappas has had enough. Last week she told WGN-AM’s Anna Davlantes, “Michigan Avenue has cancer…There’s a permanent sense of fear about crime. About getting carjacked. About getting mugged. About having something stolen from you….I’ve given 40 years of my life to build this city. And I’m watching it crumble. And it’s F-ing heartbreaking.”
This is not just a Chicago issue, as Illinoisans in cities like Decatur, Peoria, and Champaign know. Something is deeply askew in the land. Pappas’ sentiments are widely shared. But not by a majority of lawmakers in Springfield.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Stunning rise in Chicago carjackings leaves lawmakers scrambling
- Election year + Covid $ = Vote buying
- Four reasons why the state pension buyout program is problematic for taxpayers
- Illinois carjacking bill falls short; organized retail crime measure more promising
- Pension obligation bonds prioritize public sector workers, stiff taxpayers
Cover photo by Kayle Kaupanger via Unsplash
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Chicago and Illinois are victims of a strange mentality among Democrats in leadership roles. Specifically, the notion that it is more important to coddle criminals than it is to protect the innocent. Everything Democrat politicians do demonstrates an utter lack of “cause and effect” outcomes. The thinking never progresses to the next logical step. Defund Police = more crime (more victims)…but Liberals don’t make the leap (small step really). Place cops at greater risk of their livelihoods, even their lives = fewer cops = more crime. Duh. They don’t get it. And the people of Illinois, and the people of… Read more »
“They don’t get it.” No, they do get it, very much so. Our side’s problem is that we find it very difficult to get into the mind of the progressive because it is so foreign to us. But if you set aside all of a millennia of preconceived notions crime and justice, and walk-through the progressive’s mindset step-by-step, it makes sense. But it’s destructive to society. Which is why I continue to say that destruction is the point. They don’t see it as destruction, of course, they see it as necessary reform. This is an over-simplification, but the progressive sees… Read more »
Kim Foxx: I won’t ‘cut corners’ — despite crime spike — in county with long history of wrongful convictions “Amid the soaring number of shootings and murders in Cook County over the past two years, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said her prosecutors won’t “cut corners” because of pressure to tamp down crime.” https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/4/13/23024209/kim-foxx-cook-county-states-attorney-wrongful-convictions-murder-police-cpd-justice-reform ___________________________________ See what I mean? She believes that systemic racism IS ‘cutting corners’ because ‘cutting corners’ results in disparate rates of BIPOC incarceration as compared to white people. I agree with her that no innocent people should be prosecuted but she’s using this as an excuse to… Read more »
this is all being done according to plan
it’s called managed decline
Thanks for this excellent roundup of pointless legislating in Springfield. There is, indeed, something amiss in the land that while pronounced in its impact on Chicago, extends across the state and country. In short we’ve lost our way as we continue to entertain the increasingly bizarre agenda of the woke left. Values that once seemed secure in our culture have been jettisoned for the “rights” of criminals to the higher calling of victim status. In past columns you’ve documented that we are not locking up entire swaths of society as claimed, but sadly, the gullible among us have chosen to… Read more »
The triumph of Foucault, Derrida, and the other deconstructionists whose Ur Texts rule The Academy. This is what it looks like…..
Matt, thanks for another insightful column, albeit falling on “deaf eyes” for the politicians that need to see and hear the reality of our situation in Illinois. Right- get ready for the campaign mailers touting their get tough on crime package. Wait until ‘23- when the madness of Cook County gets spread across the entire state. Here’s a radical idea- forget new legislation, and enforce the laws we already have- hello Kimmi.
Matt, excellent commentary of the machinations in what happens in Springfield. The problem with Democrats and their “fake” solutions is they could care less about crime, ,carjackings, mass smash and grab lootings. Look at the response of Lori Lightfoot in trying to combat crime in Chicago. Look at all the retirements of police offices. The only thing the Democrats care about is pleasing state union employees. I’m disgusted.
Hey,hey,whoa,Lori Lightfoot has done a LOT to fight crime,she just recently increased her personal security force to about 50 cops,shes a TRUE crime fighter,just ask her
I have no idea why Illinois Republican party isn’t running Mazzochi for governor? She’s dynamite and would have a way better chance than current crop of rep candidates. Especially winning the suburban moderate/women’s vote.
Fantastic detail and analysis. Thank you for the information, however heartbreaking.
Thank you kindly, John. Trying to bring readers a well supported take that nonetheless varies from the standard varnish.
The supermajority in the legislature couldn’t lead themselves out of a brown paper bag! We may have already passed the rubicon into doomed forever territory, I’m giving it one last major personal effort this election cycle. If we don’t crack the code by eliminating their majorities and by electing two Republican Supreme Court candidates (anything after that is gravy, although I’m predicting a close US Senate race with Kathy Salvi / maybe an upset) then I’m finished with conservative activism in this state! Governing by Task Force is abdicating their responsibilities!
If we don’t crack the code by eliminating their majorities
I don’t know if this is statistically possible given how extremely gerrymandered the legislature is. There would need to be a significant defection of Democrats to Republicans AND a Red Wave year AND most independents breaking for Republicans in gerrymandered districts that are +10D to begin with AND low Democrat voter turnout. That’s a near impossibility but this is the year of red wave miracles so we’ll find out.
Also, the people that already left Illinois likely would have voted against the Dems. The new incoming Illinois voters, if they vote, are more likely to vote for the Dems. It’s all part of the death spiral.
I gave up when Rauner was marginalized, couldn’t change anything, and eventually also caved to the liberals.
Crime at an all time high and the mayor is doing everything she can to make sure that continues. Unbelievable!
Excellent article. To focus on one aspect, I can’t imagine how difficult it is to persuade anyone to become a Chicago police officer. I was in Oakland, California not long ago and saw anti-cop billboards urging people to call special new social workers instead. I’m sure that will work out beautifully, yes?
That’s why people are leaving California, just like people are leaving Illinois. It’s messed up.
Thanks to the former Californian and New Yorkers, my Tennessee area is booming.
My opinion why would you move to Chicago! My opinion growing up in Chicago uptown the white ghetto and Albany park I’m sorry I saw more bad cops than good ones and yes even in Elmwood Park where I lived for 35 years and raised my family! And having a retail business I saw everything😩😳
Illinois government is NOT STEPPING UP to DO THE JOB THEY WERE VOTED IN TO DO!! How about helping the people in Illinois instead of helping yourselves, i.e. Mayor Lightfoot wanting to “Defund the Police” but then hires 65 more police to HELP HER!! Chicago taxpayers are paying for Lightfoot’s protection while people are being killed right and left in Chicago!! LIGHTFOOT must go!! PRITZKER must go, too!! He removed all those toilets in his mansion to avoid paying taxes, but he is QUICK to raise OUR TAXES!! Illinois is TOO CORRUPT and it is time for the people in… Read more »
Read up on candidates: yes, that’s spot-on Adrienne. We’ll continue to do our part here at Wirepoints by focusing on what good policy looks like.
Illinois is broke and the corrupt politicians’ answers to crime are all smoke and mirrors. This is at all levels of government. As a police chief I experienced what the politicians want – programs and/or equipment that look good, “window dressing”, as opposed to programs and daily action that produces results. Even when law enforcement comes up with an effective strategy to dealing with crime, the politicians only want to implement the strategy to a minimal level so they can say they are doing something. They want to limit the expense of the success – it’s only about getting re-elected.… Read more »
Well said, but unlikely, especially with the Madigan whores and like with remnants of the Democratic machine still in leadership positions.
The social justice warriors opened a can of worms that is now too late to close. No punishment fo the multitudes of criminal activity propagated by appeasement.
Police recruitment is at an all time low. No amount of incentives can reverse the damage done to a once respected profession by the woke.
Instead if ankle bracelets for the “youths”, maybe implement a type of shock collar that will activate when approaching rhe Mag Mile, or a vehicle without the proper key fob.
Task forces and youth programs. The Democrat answers to everything. They won’t work. Chicago will continue to hemorrhage. Until criminals fear for their own safety or learn to value responsibility, the city will only get worse.
Bravo, Mr. Rosenberg for the jaundiced but accurate skepticism of the latest “solutions.” You are commended for your research and wise use of facts.
Thank you, Dan. Here’s one that passed by quickly more than a year ago. Worth revisiting. A then-Chicago City Hall lawyer named Caryn Jacobs put a fine point on parenting and crime in an email exchange of administration officials under Under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She wrote, “I actually agree with the idea of reforming these communities. God knows values such as intact families, education, work ethic, religion, etc. are the building blocks of success in all societies,” she wrote. “As young people, we think this is old fashioned. As we mature, we see it is not only true, but that… Read more »
Human conduct failings trying to be rectified through technology–logic from those too spineless to actually address the problem. Sheer wasteful idiocy.
Does Maria Pappas want to take a shot at Mayor? Her fellow Greek Paul Vallas is reticent to throw his chapeau in the ring.
One local media politico told me when I asked, that Maria is “too Gold Coast” to do well in the mayoral primary. I dunno about that but she could be too smart to run. No knock on the estimable Ray Lopez, who’s in. Paul is a super-smart guy who *is* going to run again, probably. If ever there were a time to get into the nitty-gritty of policy and what leadership really means….this is it.
Since no one has the appetite to incarcerate juveniles, create an Illinois prison high school behind walls, where these youths are in school full time and cannot leave. This would be the worst thing for a young thug, worse than regular detention. Even make them wear school uniforms.
Then the juvenile courts can say they are not incarcerating kids, they are just sending them to school. Staff the school with all the believers in rehabilitation so they can put their theories into practice.
If it’s good enough for San Francisco…..
You can support the ultra-liberals by paying taxes in Illinois or move to a red state. It’s that simple. You have a choice.
Or one can agitate constructively for change. As we do here at Wirepoints by detailing what good policy, and bad policy, look like.
Wirepoint info is partially responsible for my leaving Illinois. So far, no regrets.
A win for you, I get it. But not for the state. Not saying that should be *your* first concern. Not my business – except to say that fixing what’s driving the exodus should be Job One for every official here.
There’s nothing to fix. They want all non-Democrat voters to leave. This is not just a cynical point of view. It’s the reality. There’s a nationwide political self-sorting going on. IL wants to be the Bluest island in the Dark Red midwest and that requires making IL completely intolerable for middle class conservatives. Some population loss is an accepted unintended consequence of this policy. They hope to make it up through illegal immigration. I know this seems really cynical; but there’s no other way to describe a state that goes out of its way to alienate and disenfranchise conservative votes.… Read more »
That’s how short-term thinking works. Those who make and enforce the laws have their exit plans in place. Some may have been born here but they are carpet-baggers all the same. Following tear-down we enter the Reconstruction phase. Lasts about 12 years.
I’d like to believe that but from what I’ve seen around the state the progressives are emboldened and there’s no stopping them. They are not taking over only elected offices, but they are infiltrating themselves into the bureaucracy of towns, cities and counties. Even if you elected Republicans from top to bottom you’d still be unable to dislodge the activists that have infested the system. Rauner made that complaint, that all of his policies were 100% resisted by the unelected bureaucrats that were unfireable because of unions. Like BAP once said, sometimes your country (or state) goes totally Bolshevik for… Read more »
Yes, every person who chooses to stay in Illinois is RESPONSIBLE for FUNDING the BS. FACT