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So far this year, Chicago police have made an arrest in less than a quarter of all 2022 murders, according to city data. Meanwhile, police data obtained by the investigative news outlet The Trace and analyzed by WBEZ show that of the cases that are solved, the median length of a Chicago homicide investigation is about six weeks. Many cases take far longer.

It can be an agonizing wait for grieving families seeking justice, but police spokeswoman Margaret Huynh said sometimes a “lengthy process” is necessary for “complex cases that require evidence such as witness corroboration and forensic evidence.”

“Laboratory results, forensic results … are a bit of a problem for police,” said Thomas Hargrove, executive director of the Murder Accountability Project. “Because everybody’s overwhelmed … especially in Chicago.”

The Illinois State Police crime lab has become notorious for its huge backlog and slow testing times. The most recent state statistics show the crime lab has made progress speeding things up, but analysis can still take anywhere between three weeks to four months, depending on the type of test being done. […]

“If you’re looking for a city to get away with murder, Chicago ought to be on your shortlist. And that in itself promotes more murder, and then more murders overwhelm the police. So you know, it’s a cycle that constantly feeds itself, ever downward.” [Hargrove said]

Go read the whole thing.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:10 am

Comments

Chicago is also a great place for Cops to get away with murder, with a rich tradition going back to murdering labor activists and other advocates for social change like Fred Hampton.

Perhaps that’s the root of their problem, that and we’ve made it a little harder for them to torture confessions out of innocent young men and children.

Comment by Candy Dogood Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:19 am
“Hargrove said his experience with Chicago police is that they are well intentioned, but overworked and underresourced.” Cause the demand for forensic evidence grows higher every day. The family in question believes they know who ordered the murder. But if the police went on that, imagine the screaming that comes from the defense side. They could make cases all the time based on that kind of justice. The public cannot have it both ways.

Comment by Amalia Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:22 am
I can understand by some Chicago residents want to carry a handgun pretty much everywhere for safety reasons after reading this one.

Comment by Steve Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:31 am
Chicago’s per-capita spending on police is higher than most cities, even ones with higher costs of living. If homicide investigations are under-resourced as the article claims, makes me wonder where the money is being spent.

Comment by ChicagoVinny Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:34 am
Solving crimes is the single biggest thing the police can do to earn community support. That includes murders but isn’t limited to that. The statistics are even worse on sexual assaults, property crimes, and computer crimes.

I’ve never understood the amount of resources assigned to patrolling vs investigation. Why do the police spend so many man-hours driving around looking for crimes in progress, when there’s a steady stream of reported crimes going uninvestigated?

Comment by vern Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:35 am
==If you’re looking for a city to get away with murder, Chicago ought to be on your shortlist.==
Darren Bailey ” See, I told ya so”

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:36 am
CPD does need to do things quicker. But I think that all the police procedurals on TV make the casual viewer think that a criminal investigation and prosecution when done right can be done in 48 hours. Its just not the case, especially if you wan the case to stick.

Comment by Unionman Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:44 am
Since the 1970s I’ve been hearing Illinois crime labs are overwhelmed.

Has any gubernatorial candidate ever proposed building more crime labs?

Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:54 am
I wonder how many homicide detectives are POC. While aome witnesses are always going to be reluctant to work with any police, it’s probably an additional barrier when the cops working the case aren’t representative of the neighborhood.

Comment by Big Dipper Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 9:57 am
Streator Curmudgeon: Governor of Pritzker discussed building forensic labs in his State of the State addres. A new one is being built in Decatur right now.

Comment by Cheswick Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 10:10 am
Cheswick–

Thanks. That’s something concrete that can be done that will have a positive effect on the process.

Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 10:16 am
@Cheswick and @Streator Curmudgeon

—

That’s a very positive move to address this issue, one which the Prizker team (and Lightfoot team, for that matter) would be wise to publicize as a specific measure being taken to address crime.

Comment by Techie Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 10:25 am
CPD overpromoted politically connected people instead of the most qualified. Chicago’s problems are the product of a soft and slow corruption.

Comment by Chicagonk Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 10:33 am
Law enforcement needs more resources dedicated to where they will have the most impact. Reallocating resources, not defunding, crime prevention and investigating efforts. Social services to prevent crime, labs to process evidence, better training, more public outreach. It’s a long list but it’s all rooted in sound policy.

I believe Pritzker recognizes this but it will take a well funded sustained effort to fix the problem. And unfortunately our attention span doesn’t often allow for that. So what we get instead are scare tactics (they’re coming to the suburbs), empty slogans (back the blue) and punitive measures (stiffer penalties). And then we wonder why our problems persist.

Comment by Pundent Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 10:37 am
According to the research the analysis at the State Police Crime Lab can take between 3 weeks to 4 months.
Yet another example of Team Pritzker failing to competently do the government thing.

Comment by Back to the Future Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 10:54 am
JB can fix this. Just as with the FOID backlog – when enough people pressure him he can prioritize resources. ISP FOID examiners needed special training - and of course, ISP crime LAB staff will need that also - but put the ball in motion - in the next year the problem can be mitigated.

Comment by Donnie Elgin Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 11:04 am
@Back to the Future: That seems unfair. This is a longstanding problem that predates Pritzker by quite a bit, and as Cheswick mentioned above, the state (J.B. Pritzker, governor) is building a new crime lab and discussing the need for more. This is more movement in a positive direction than we’ve seen in years.

If you think this bespeaks incompetence from the Pritzker team, than what does that say about his predecessors who, I assume, are more in line with your political leanings?

Comment by Crispy Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 11:20 am
===The Illinois State Police crime lab has become notorious for its huge backlog and slow testing times. The most recent state statistics show the crime lab has made progress speeding things up, but analysis can still take anywhere between three weeks to four months…===

This is EXACTLY why the DuPage County Sheriff’s Department has it’s own crime lab.

Comment by DuPage Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 11:49 am
Crispy
The delays speak for themselves.
Closing in on 4 years of Team Pritzker and long delays exist in times where concerns about crime are present.
As I pointed out, these delays by this State group is yet another other example of incompetence by Team Pritzker.
CPD Detectives and the people they are trying to protect need crime lab reports in a timely manner.
This is not complex. Pritzker is failing CPD officers and Chicago taxpayers.

Comment by Back to the Future Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 12:03 pm
===Chicago taxpayers.===

Only taxpayers deserve justice?

Aren’t we all tax payers? Why the distinction?

The only reason you want this beef is like an Illinois Policy Institute acolyte, the “taxpayers” are the victims.

No.

The victims are the victims

The problem is real and serious, it’s not a problem that taxpayers drive the angst.

They need to do better. Better for the victims

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 12:09 pm
OW
Absolutely agree.
On reflection, Taxpayers was not the best term to use here.

Comment by Back to the Future Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 12:30 pm
Pulling patrol officers from the streets won’t solve the under-staffing issue by a long shot, and will increase response times for all calls. Shot-spotter and street racing response won’t work well if nobody can get to the area quick enough or happens to be there already. And rookie detectives don’t usually get assigned high-impact cases; they work up from smaller cases, and that takes time to shift from a patrol to a detective mindset with new skills. The Alderpeople aren’t gonna let their districts be stripped of a visible uniform presence even if the impact of random vehicle patrol isn’t very high (as shown by various studies over a few decades).
As for the crime lab issues, CPD runs its own, and yes JB needs to get on this and get more ISP regional labs open and funded, or fund multi-agency regional labs. ISP has improved, but the need is far greater than the current service level ISP can provide. Getting qualified staff for these labs can also be an issue, old or new. Not an easy fix.

Comment by thisjustinagain Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 1:09 pm
I have never understood why Chicago doesn’t have it’s own crime lab. At bare minimum, there should be a joint CPD/Cook County Sheriff lab. From the little bit of research I did, it seems like Chicago is unique in being reliant on a state lab. Meanwhile, according to the ISP (https://isp.illinois.gov/Forensics/LabsAreaMap) the Chicago lab is responsible for processing evidence submitted from agencies in Cook, DuPage, and Lake counties. Having a locally-run, properly staffed lab for Chicago could go a long way in helping with processing times.

As for the ISP processing times, as others have mentioned, it’s a long standing problem that predates this administration by several administrations. These are also highly technical, professional jobs that require a lot of training, so there’s some time between hiring and getting new staff fully working. But it does seem like the Pritzker administration has been focusing on investing resources into the State Police.

Comment by MyTwoCents Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 1:32 pm
Didn’t the Donald say he could fix this in a month… guess he was too busy building a wall to keep our criminals in or squirrling away nuclear secrets.

Comment by Thought Trump fixed this Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 2:51 pm
Laboratory analysis of samples is not always quick and easy, too many people watching shows like NCIS and countless other shows where they churn out data immediately. Sorry, it doesn’t work like that.
I worked in both medical and regulatory labs for 30 years. If you want the results to stand up in court under the scrutiny of good attorneys, all your analytical data and quality control data better be perfect.

Comment by Stoney Friday, Sep 9, 22 @ 3:33 pm