Violent crimes on rise in Chicago, robberies at five-year high

(The Center Square) – Crime is up in Chicago despite city-wide efforts — and more than $180 million — to reduce violence through a series of programs.

Republican state Rep. John Cabello said Chicago's rising crime rate amounts to an indictment of the state's present legal system and all its recent changes.

New data shows robbery, aggravated assault and aggravated battery cases across the city are all at five-year highs over the 12 months as the number of violent crimes overall have jumped by 7.2%.

“When criminals know that they're probably not going to be held in jail because of the SAFE-T ACT they're going to be a little bit more brave in what they do,” Cabello told the Center Square. “The arrests are down because the police are too afraid to do their jobs. They need to get rid of the SAFE-T ACT, no cash bail but for low level offenses and go back to what we were.”

With arrests coming in just 1-in-18 cases over the last year, robberies, including coordinated attacks where specific businesses are targeted, also topped the list of most common violent crime at 36%. At the same time, batteries and assaults combined for an additional 57% of all such cases.

Overall, residents in the city reported 30,375 violent crimes from August 2023 through July 2024, as the felony arrest rate for such offenses dipped to just 12.8%, or the second lowest arrest levels over the last five years.

The ongoing crime wave continues to bubble despite the city heavily investing in hopes of changing things, including allocating at least $180 million for violence prevention and youth summer job programs as part of the state budget.

As a longtime member of law enforcement, Cabello warns the city will continue to pay the price for Springfield’s policy shortcomings.

“It's going to continue with Chicago losing population,” he said. “People are going to leave because they're afraid and they want to protect their families and that means the more people that leave Chicago the less tax dollars they're going to have and it's going to be a never-ending, revolving cycle.”

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Cabello said Republicans would also like to see lawmakers make adjustments to the no cash bail element of the SAFE-T Act that allows judges to have more discretion about who they can detain.

“We had a working group called the Tips Working Group (Truth In Public Safety) and we spoke with lots of different stakeholders,” he said. “We talked to defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys , judges and the gamut because we don't think that the majority party will get rid of the Safety Act. We had legislation that would make it better, but they still haven't even wanted to talk about that.”