Chicagoans reported 7.8% more violent crime from June 2023 through May 2024, led primarily by a spike in robberies. West and South Side residents bore the brunt of the increase as arrest rates continued to decline.
Former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, once the longest-serving member of the city council, was sentenced to two years in prison and pay a $2 million fine.
Black Chicagoans were over 20 times more likely to become homicide victims during the past 12 months than their white peers, with 9-in-10 homicides on the South Side and West Side. Hopes of catching killers hit a new low.
This episode of The Policy Shop is by staff writer Patrick Andriesen and data scientist Jon Josko. Two recent measures of Chicago crime yielded a disturbing theme: Crimes are getting more violent; police are making fewer arrests. One of those crimes, a carjacking, left a Chicago Police officer dead. Officer Luis Huesca was shot 10...
Assaults were up 6.7% for the 12 months ending in April as confrontations became more violent. Black Chicagoans were more than 5 times more likely to be assault victims than their white counterparts.
Whether college protest encampments or political convention agitators, Chicago needs a way to penalize the few who disrupt life for the rest of us. A nuisance ordinance would do that.
Chicagoans reported 2,619 fewer vehicle thefts during the first four months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, but cases remain more than double what they were just a few years ago as arrests remain low. One carjacking took a police officer’s life.
This episode of The Policy Shop is by staff writer Patrick Andriesen Ninety Illinois communities have decided they could use some extra revenue, so they let red-light camera companies install devices that from 2008 through last year issued $1.56 billion in tickets. At least 527 red-light cameras were in operation by 2022 after the state...
Mayor Brandon Johnson hits the one-year mark May 15, showing voters he is exactly who he said he was. That’s turning out to be bad for Chicago. Here’s how.
Local governments generated $500 million from red-light camera tickets since 2019, with Chicago alone collecting $223.8 million. Total since 2008: $1.56 billion.
“I’m old enough to remember when they implemented the Tollway system in Illinois. That was supposed to be a temporary measure to pay for the interstate and it was supposed to end in 40 years. We know how that turned out.”
Chicago Public Schools saw violent crime increase 26% in 2023 and arrests hit a record low of 8%. Now thanks to pressure from the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Brandon Johnson, police are being removed from schools.
This episode of The Policy Shop is by writer Patrick Andriesen Two Chicago mayors have decried their city’s near-predatory use of traffic tickets. Yet those two Chicago mayors have effectively worked to increase ticket revenue. Beware the next politician promising “relief,” because it likely means even more cash taken from drivers who can ill-afford Chicago’s...
Chicago speed cameras hit motorists with over $102 million in fines during 2023, and $879 million total since they started flashing a decade ago. The mayor promised to eliminate the automated traffic cams, which issued a ticket every 20 seconds last year.