Carbondale Reporter

State Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale) recently sounded off against the leadership of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, stemming from new data for Chicago showing that arrests are down significantly in a number of areas including violent crimes such as homicide and sexual assault.

“Her policies have made it harder for police officers to do their job,” Jacobs said. “In addition, the Chicago Police Department is not getting any help from Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. She is a prosecutor who won’t prosecute criminals. The poor leadership from Kim Foxx and Lori Lightfoot is directly contributing to the rise in crime in the City of Chicago.”

New data released for 2022 shows that arrests in Chicago were made for only 5% of offenses in areas of major crimes, including murders, sexual assaults, aggravated batteries and carjackings, according to a report by Wirepoints referring to data from the Chicago crime portal.

This is significantly down from the 10% that was recorded in 2019, the Wirepoints report stated. Arrest rates varied by the type of major crimes involved, based on seven categories that cities have reported to the federal government. Chicago’s homicide arrest rate is down 5% to 28% last year. This is a far lower than the 41% reported in 2020 and 33% in 2021, showing an exponential decline. Jacobs said he feels the arrests are down due to Lightfoot’s “incompetent leadership.”

Jacobs described Chicago as a “world class city that attracts people from all around the world.” He said that it depends on revenue from tourism, which is a reason why the rise in violence is a concern of his. 

“It is time for Chicago City leaders to prioritize public safety,” Jacobs said. “The most important job of local governments is keeping people safe and Chicago’s leaders unfortunately are failing miserably.”

The most glaring arrest rates with thefts in 2022 were in retail, amounting to 16%, or about 9,000, according to Wirepoints. This means that more than 80% of retail thieves in the city of Chicago escape justice. About 1% of thefts of over $500, or around 20,000, resulted in arrests 1% of the time. Nearly 19,000 thefts of $500 and under led to arrests in 1.6% of the time. For nearly 5,000 of thefts from a building, the arrest rate was 0.5%.

Jacobs said that policies that limit police from taking action against people who commit minor crimes need to be removed. He said the message that some crime is “OK” is unacceptable and could lead to much worse scenarios.

“It does not take long for people who commit minor crimes to start committing other crimes,” Jacobs said. “Chicago through its policies is creating a culture that rewards criminals and the end result is a city that is quickly developing a reputation as a dangerous place. It is time for our citizens to stop rewarding criminals.”