(The Center Square) – A retired police chief says criminal activity has surged in suburban counties around Chicago.
Federal prosecutors announced charges last week against three alleged gang members from Chicago in connection with criminal acts in the suburbs.
In addition, new crimes were reported at more than a dozen businesses in west and southwest suburban Downers Grove, Oak Brook and Woodridge.
Retired Riverside, Illinois, Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said it’s a pattern of crime.
“They commit the crimes, whatever they may be, retail theft, robberies, sometimes even more violent street crimes, and then the [modus operandi] is to flee east back to the city of Chicago,” Weitzel told The Center Square. “They’re typically taking the expressways back, whether that be the Stevenson Expressway [I-55] or the 290.”
Weitzel said Illinois law is part of the problem.
“They’ve played a major role, the SAFE-T Act and the TRUST Act. It’s creating lawlessness. It’s creating offenders that believe there’s no accountability, and in some cases there isn’t. Serious felony offenders are being released from police custody shortly after being arrested,” Weitzel said.
The SAFE-T Act, which the General Assembly passed in 2021, included the Pretrial Fairness Act, which ended cash bail in Illinois after being upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2023. The TRUST Act, signed in 2017, prohibits state and local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement.
Last week, Illinois U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, called on sheriffs to defy Illinois’ sanctuary law. Weitzel explained why sheriffs are more likely than municipal police to cooperate with U.S. immigration officials.
“If you’re an elected official, an elected sheriff, you have a little bit more cover. You can’t be removed. Police chiefs, I’m telling you, they’re not enforcing any of these ICE retainers or anything, not because they don’t want to, because if they do, they’ll be removed. They’ll be fired,” Weitzel said.
In addition to last week’s reported crimes in DuPage County, recent series of retail theft cases affected Will County and suburban Cook County.
Weitzel said there is no central database for suburban crimes.
“There isn’t a real central deposit area for all of this SAFE-T Act information. They’ll give you the individuals that are released from court, but all these individuals, these offenders, that are being released from the police station because it doesn’t meet the criteria of the SAFE-T Act, nobody’s tracking that,” Weitzel said. “Those cases that never go to first appearance court, and believe me, there’s thousands of them, are not being tracked by anybody.”
Weitzel added that municipalities can fudge the numbers.
“The data can be very misleading,” Weitzel concluded.
