CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES PUBLIC SAFETY AFTER CAR JACKINGS

Ald. Greg Mitchell
Ald. Greg Mitchell

 City council discusses public safety after car jackings

BY TIA CAROL JONES

     At a recent City Council Public Safety Committee meeting, elected officials and community residents discussed the current situation, with insight from law enforcement about the rash of vehicular hijackings and aggravated vehicular hijackings happening throughout the city.
    A resolution, sponsored by 8th Ward Ald. Michelle Harris and 7th Ward Ald. Greg Mitchell, called for a hearing on efforts to curb the rising number of car jackings in the city.
    Harris said since August 2020, she and Mitchell have tried to address car jackings the best way they knew how. She called for a re-creation of the juvenile justice laws to arrest juveniles, who it has been said are the ones committing these crimes.
    “A judge can only do what he’s been sanctioned by the law to do, so we have to create an environment for them. We need to recreate the laws and that takes every level of government working together to get this done,” she said.
    Harris also thanked 29th Ward Ald. Chris Taliaferro for being part of the dialogues about the car jackings.
     “This whole process has made me have to create my own process for my own community, everything from the public resources to adding cameras to working on lighting up grids,” she said. “Everything from tree trimming to traffic management and lastly, would be the legal remedies we have to put together to make this really work for our communities. We’re going to have to get together to change laws.”
    Harris suggested that some of the districts have to become Tier I because of the car jackings. She said while her ward is not a terrible community, people are terrified to be out. She described it as a multilayered issue, like an onion. She said to solve the problem it would take all available resources -- State of Illinois and Cook County – to get it under control.
     “I love my community, I’ve lived here all my life. And, I want the people who live here to love their community and stay in their community,” she said.
    Mitchell said, because the car jackings are taking place across the city, it will take all 50 Alderpeople to come together.
      “We all have to make the commitment to do whatever it takes. This should be personal, politics should not even play a role in this. I have been in my neighborhood all my life, I have never ever seen the kind of things that are going on. This car jacking is something out of a video game,” he said, and added, he has had to re-educate his older residents in the community. “Because the times have change[d], we have to change in how we police, we have to change how we legislate, and the community has to change in how we set our communities up for success.”
    Mitchell stated, “corona has a vaccine, what is our vaccine to the car jackings and public safety?”
    Colonel David Byrd, Illinois State Police, said the Illinois State Police have caught 11 offenders from 2020-2021. Byrd said the average age of the offender is 18 years old, and the youngest offender the Illinois State Police have taken into custody is approximately 14 years old.
     Brendan Deenihan, chief of detectives at Chicago Police Department, said the surge of car jackings started in April 2020 and has continued into 2021. The Chicago Police Department has reported 166 car jackings as of Thursday, Jan. 21. “We’re building coalitions that include law enforcement, prosecutors, youth intervention and community members to address this problem,” he said.
    Deenihan added Chicago Police Department is working with the prosecutors office to hold repeat offenders accountable. Deenihan said youth intervention officers play a key role in reducing the volume of car jackings because the largest category of those arrested for car jacking are between 15-20 years old.
     “We’ve seen numerous cases where young people that are not even old enough to have a drivers license are committing the car jackings,” he said. “Young people need to know they’re jeopardizing their future for a simple joy ride.”

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