Sangamon Sun

Crime is on the rise in Chicago, but arrest numbers for major crimes have fallen in recent years.

Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) told the Sangamon Sun it is time for a change.

“What has to be done is Democrats have to come back to the table and fix things with us,” McClure said. “We want to be tough on crimes and support our law enforcement. Democrats want to be soft on crime and attack our law enforcement. The city also needs a new mayor because right now the mayor and state’s attorney are of no help when it comes to fighting crime.”

Data released for 2022 shows that arrests in Chicago were made for only 5% of major crime offenses. This includes murders, sexual assaults, aggravated batteries, and carjackings, according to a Feb. 3 Wirepoints report.

This number is down from the 10% recorded in 2019. Arrest rates varied by the type of major crimes involved, based on seven categories that cities have reported to the federal government. In 2022, Chicago’s homicide arrest rate was 28%. In 2020, the arrest rate was 41%, and 33% in 2021, according to Chicago’s crime data portal.

“First, there's not enough law enforcement in Chicago and secondly Kim Foxx doesn't prosecute enough, and officers feel like what’s the point of doing all the arrests,” McClure said.

According to Wirepoints, the highest rate of thefts in 2022 was in retail which accounted for 16%, or nearly 9,000 thefts. This means about 84% of retail thieves in Chicago are not caught and prosecuted. About 1% of thefts “over $500,” or around 20,000, resulted in arrests. Nearly 19,000 thefts of “$500 and under” led to arrests 1.6% of the time. For the nearly 5,000 “thefts from a building” the arrest rate was only 0.5%.

McClure said these numbers were unfortunately expected.

“The numbers are not a surprise at all because ever since the SAFE-T Act passed officers have been resigning and leaving the state and now we don’t have enough law enforcement to do the job that needs to be done,” McClure said.