CHICAGO – Shortly after armed robbers robbed a man in Bucktown Wednesday night, Chicago officers located and pursued the group’s getaway car. About three minutes later, a police supervisor, somewhat reluctantly, ordered an end to the chase. The trio of armed men in the silver Hyundai slipped away, free to rob again.
Wednesday’s victim, 23, was in the 2200 block of North Leavitt when three men confronted him with at least one gun around 11:40 p.m., a Chicago police spokesman said. They demanded his valuables and fled.
About 15 minutes later, police spotted the crew in traffic near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Leavitt Street. They initiated a pursuit and as per protocol, their dispatcher notified a police supervisor of the pursuit and asked if it should continue. After asking a handful of questions, such as how many people were in the car (three), the supervisor ended the chase.
Earlier in the day a jury awarded nearly $80 million to the family of Da’Karia Spicer, a 10-year-old girl who was killed when a driver pursued by CPD crashed into their car four years ago.
“Until politicians are willing to pass laws and delegate responsibility for what criminals do to innocent citizens, pursuits are a lost cause.” wrote Second City Copa daily blog about the city’s police force.
“The city and the ministry have been saying for more than ten years: stop hunting. In this case, a ten-year-old child died and we have no answer,” the blog continued.
Earlier this yearthe City Council approved a $45 million settlement with the family of Nathan Jones, who has been left unable to walk, talk or live independently since a Volkswagen was chased at high speed for a traffic violation and crashed into his family’s car. intersection of Grand and Damen in April 2021. Jones was in the backseat of the Volkswagen.
In September 2022, the city reached a $15 million settlement with the family of a woman killed when a CPD police car pursuing a hijacked vehicle sped through a Lakeview intersection against the light and rammed her car.
Chicago police introduced one new vehicle pursuit policy in August 2020. The policy provides officers 13 pages of instructions to consider when deciding whether to pursue a vehicle. It explicitly states that the CPD will not punish any member for terminating a motor vehicle pursuit.
There is of course an interaction. If violent people like the robbery crew that struck in Bucktown on Wednesday night aren’t pursued, they could target more victims in the future. Many officers and residents believe the CPD’s reluctance to pursue the robbers played a major role in a wave of robberies that plagued parts of the city for nearly two years.
Wednesday’s robbery came two nights after robbery crews committed seven robberies in Bucktown and nearby neighborhoods. Wednesday’s robbery came two nights after robbery crews committed seven robberies in Bucktown and nearby neighborhoods. And on November 22 and 23, teams of armed robbers committed at least five armed robberies and carjackings in Logan Square, the West Loop and Ukrainian Village. The group focused exclusively on women.
After months of relative peace, thanks to a number of high-profile arrests earlier this year, there are growing concerns that the robbery squads that have long targeted West Town, Logan Square, Wicker Park and Bucktown may be reforming.
The good news is that CPD has deployed new tools and developed several strategies that could give them the upper hand if robberies increase again. In response to widespread carjackings during the COVID era, the department created an intelligence center that used the city’s camera and license plate reader networks to quickly locate hijacked vehicles. The center’s capabilities are now being applied to identify and locate possible getaway vehicles in various crimes.
The power of that real-time intelligence is multiplied whenever one of CPD’s helicopters is in the air. Aviation units can locate and track suspicious vehicles from one side of the city. Rather than risk a pursuit, ground units can stay out of sight on side streets near the getaway car and then move in when the vehicle reaches its destination.
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