SE Illinois News

Rep. Kevin Schmidt (R-Cahokia Heights) is responding to a recently released report that said data for 2022 shows that in Chicago arrests were made for only 5% of offenses in the area of major crimes that included murders, sexual assaults, aggravated batteries and carjackings.

“It says there is a major public safety concern in the City of Chicago,” Schmidt said. “It says the police are outnumbered and need help. It says the policy changes in Chicago are not working and it says Chicago needs new and better leadership.”

The numbers are significantly down from the 10% arrest rate that was recorded in 2019.

“The arrest numbers are a direct result of poor leadership and poor policies,” Schmidt said. “When Chicago gets better leaders and better policies in place, there will be better results.”

Arrest rates varied by the type of “major crime,” based on the seven categories that cities have long reported to the federal government, with Chicago’s homicide arrest rate down 5% to 29% in 2022 and some 13% lower than the 41% in 2020.

“Nothing is going to change as long as the current leadership is in place,” Schmidt said. “Lightfoot’s changes within the Chicago Police Department send a message that small-time offenders are not going to be arrested for their crimes. These policies reward criminal activity and make the city less safe. I am for better training for police officers to prevent bad outcomes but the police need to be able to do their job and unfortunately they can’t because what is guiding the rule making in the City of Chicago is politics, not the safety of honest citizens.”

The highest arrest rate within thefts in 2022 was the nearly 9,000 retail thefts – at 16%. Meaning more than four of five retail thieves in Chicago escape justice, and the nearly 19,000 thefts “$500 and under” led to arrests in just 1.6% of cases. For the almost 5,000 “thefts from a building” the arrest rate was 0.5%.