Chicago Gun Crimes Surge Continues Amid New Prosecution Efforts
A federal surge in gun crimes in Chicago has prompted Attorney General Jeff Sessions to announce a new team to prosecute gun cases from the city’s most violent neighborhoods. The announcement comes as President Trump directed Sessions to work with local law enforcement to help Chicago police officers do their jobs and reduce violent crime.
On October 8, 2018, President Trump directed Attorney General Sessions to work with local law enforcement to help Chicago police officers do their jobs and reduce violent crime. Pursuant to the President’s order, Attorney General Sessions is sending five additional violent crime prosecutors to Chicago. With these additional resources, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch is creating a Gun Crimes Prosecution Team that will focus on investigating and prosecuting gun cases from the most violent neighborhoods in Chicago.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will assign five Violent Crime Coordinators (VCCs) to U.S Attorney Lausch’s Project Safe Neighborhoods team. These experienced VCCs will join the existing ATF VCC in Chicago in the daily review of firearm arrests and seizures in the city to ensure the most violent firearm offenders are promptly and effectively prosecuted in federal court.
In June 2017, Attorney General Sessions created the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force, a permanent team of 21 additional permanent ATF special agents, six intelligence research specialists, 12 task force officers from the Chicago Police Department, two task force officers from the Illinois State Police, and four ballistics specialists who are focused on the most violent offenders in the most violent areas. Working with the Chicago Police Department, the Strike Force has enhanced substantially firearms enforcement in the City of Chicago.
Since the Strike Force began operation, ATF firearm arrests in Chicago have increased by 24.6 percent; ATF firearm seizures/recoveries have increased by 45.8 percent, and CPD has increased firearm seizures by 11.3 percent. As of September 2018, violent crime has been reduced in all four police districts where the Strike Force has been assigned, including a 49 percent decrease in homicides in the Seventh District.
“Public safety, security and order are the fundamental responsibility of the executive branches of our state, local and federal governments,” Attorney General Sessions said. “This constitutional duty rests primarily, for large cities, on their police departments. These departments are composed of some of our finest citizens who daily display courage, respect for law, judgment, and integrity. There is one government institution, and one alone, that has the ability to make Chicago safer—that is the Chicago Police Department. Our goal should be to empower it to fulfill its duties, not to restrict its proper functioning or excessively demean the entire Department for the errors of a few. Make no mistake: unjustified restrictions on proper policing and disrespect for our officers directly led to this tragic murder surge in Chicago.
“At a fundamental level, there is a misperception that police are the problem and that their failures, their lack of training, and their abuses create crime. But the truth is the police are the solution to crime, and criminals are the problem. The results of the ACLU settlement in November 2015, as revealed by Judge Cassel’s study, established this fact dramatically, conclusively, and most painfully for the City of Chicago. When police are restrained from using lawfully established policies of community engagement, when arrests went down, and when their work and character were disrespected, crime surged. There must never be another consent decree that continues the folly of the ACLU settlement.”
Key Facts
- State: Federal
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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