Governor Pritzker’s desk bill to crack down on organized crime in retail amid rising crime on Mag Mile and elsewhere

CHICAGO (CBS) – We have seen retail thefts occur throughout the Chicago area – both in the city and in the suburbs.

Now a new law awaiting the signature of Governor J. B. Pritzker, make it easier for the police to catch these criminals.

Full text of the bill, HB1091

As reported on Friday by Tara Malina of CBS 2, this is happening at a time when the long-standing trend of thefts in retail stores has begun to affect city and state profits – loss of tax revenue, loss of retailers and other ways.

The Wonderful mile in particular was beaten these theft the last couple of years. Within minutes, theft can lead to the theft of goods worth tens of thousands of dollars.

We are monitoring the growing trend of crime.

Now that the governor is signing a bill aimed at organized crime in retail, we are told that the public can see its impact this summer.

“At least now we have a foundation that deals with these issues,” said Rob Carr, president of the Illinois Retailers Association.

Carr worked directly with lawmakers and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raul on legislation.

“This creates a nationwide platform for intelligence gathering and sharing for property defenders and law enforcement partners both at the federal level and at the state and local levels,” he said.

Almost every other country in the country already has such a platform for gathering intelligence.

In addition, the bill will introduce repression against foreign markets for stolen goods – obliging them to inspect the seller and the goods offered for sale, as well as receive contact information from each seller.

The bill also aims to close the prosecution loopholes used by criminal groups, according to Kara, to give jurisdiction to a state prosecutor if the crimes take place in more than one county.

“So let’s say something is stolen in Cook and it’s stored in Will County, and it’s fenced off in Lake County,” Carr said. “Any of these jurisdictions that detect this can try it all.”

We asked the Cook County Attorney’s Office, Kim Fox, because we saw that crimes were being prosecuted in other counties. The prosecutor’s office said it could not comment on the law, which is under development.

But prosecutors have shared with us some data on criminal trials and prosecutions for crimes in zip code 60611, which includes Meg Mile and other major shopping areas:

Here are the requested data for payments from the beginning of the year only in postal code 60611. Recall, we have included preliminary background information sent to you regarding cases of theft in retail. Note that cases that reached consideration at a certain time could have been initiated earlier than the selected period.

Gun for adults

In the period from 01.01.2022 to 13.04.2022 (103 days) CCSAO considered and decided to collect 24 cases with a pistol with postal code 60611. 19 cases were approved with 79% approval. 20 cases (cases) were brought to justice and 17 were convicted with 85% of the charges.

Adult theft

In the period from 01.01.2022 to 13.04.2022 (103 days) CCSAO considered and decided to recover 29 cases of theft in retail with a postal code of 60611. 20 cases were approved with approval of 69% rate. 7 cases (cases) were prosecuted and 4 convicted with 57% charges.

Gun for minors

In the period from 01.01.2022 to 13.04.2022 (103 days) the CCSAO considered and decided to file 0 cases on weapons in this area. 0 cases were instituted. 2 cases were considered and 2 were considered with 100% number of decisions.

Juvenile theft in retail

In the period from 01.01.2022 to 13.04.2022 (103 days) CCSAO considered and decided to apply for 0 cases in this area. 0 cases were instituted. 0 cases were considered and 0 ruled.

The state prosecutor’s office has also provided these tables of the most reviewed and prosecuted adult crimes under zip code 60611 so far this year – until Wednesday this week.

Prosecutors noted that in December 2016, Prosecutor Fox raised the threshold for criminal theft to $ 1,000 to allow prosecutors to “focus on the motives of violence rather than low-level nonviolent offenses. Today, the number one charge is one of those charges.” it’s a weapon. ” Some such cases may be charged as misdemeanors and not included in the data.

But the number of crimes is growing. We reviewed the latter and narrowed down the first two official urban areas for retail theft. This is the Middle North – this year increased by 145.7 percent with 339 cases, and Loop – by 66.1 percent with 294 cases. Thefts also rose 101.1 percent in the Middle West Side, 129 percent in Lakeview and 125.9 percent in West Town.

Despite this, there have been quite a few appeals in the Retail Organized Crime Bill. Some lawmakers said it was not strong enough, while victim protection groups called it an exaggeration, noting that victims of domestic violence and human trafficking are convicted of shoplifting if it is a survival tactic.

The final version of the bill took into account the issues that will be considered in the future.

The American Civil Liberties Union made the following statement: “The final bill on organized theft in retail was a significant improvement over the original proposal, which would allow people to be arrested just for what they thought of theft in retail stores. We never thought it needed to solve this problem. “We will see how this law is used when it is signed to ensure that it does not become a tool for mass imprisonment and excessive police.”

Attorney General Raoul, headed by Fr. task force focused on these issues, the statement said that legislation gives his office the tools it needs to thwart and combat these growing crimes.