West Cook News

Chicago-area law enforcement got a portion of what they wanted in carjacking legislation approved on the last day of the spring session in Springfield when a few days before it appeared as though they would get only a watered-down change in the law.

On May 31, the Senate amended and approved HB 1804, which allows police to presume that a car driven without the owner’s permission, or knowledge, is stolen, permitting them to charge anyone in the car with being in possession of stolen goods. Under a loophole in the current law, police must prove that the occupants knew the car was stolen before charging them. The House concurred in Senate amendments later in the day, sending the bill to the governor to be signed into law. 

The legislation also allows for the detention of juveniles (17 and under) who had prior carjacking arrests, a key provision for members of a carjacking task force formed in February and headed by the Chicago Police Department (CPD)

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson

“We’re finding that most of the offenders range in age from 12 to 19 years old, and a lot of them are repeat offenders,” Jim O’Shea, police chief of River Forest told Chicago City Wire. River Forest has seen a spike in carjackings in the past year and is part of the task force.

The task force’s original anti-carjacking initiative, contained in SB 2339, would have allowed for juveniles charged with possession of a stolen car or with carjacking to be held up to 40 hours before appearing before a judge, who could find them delinquent and send them to a juvenile detention facility. The Senate cleared that bill on May 2 with no negative votes.  

But at the insistence of the Black Caucus, the House removed the 40-hour detention provision and sent the bill back to the Senate.

For Tom Weitzel, police chief of Riverside, getting a juvenile before a judge is critical in assessing the circumstances surrounding a stolen car. 

“Was there a weapon used? Was a police chase involved? Was the juvenile involved in earlier thefts? All these factors should enter into a decision whether to hold someone or not,” he said.

The legislation pit Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson against Cook County board President Toni Preckwinkle. Johnson, who is African American, was quoted in Crain’s Chicago Business as saying his goal is not to ‘to "lock up more black and brown people," as Preckwinkle has charged, but to "send a message that (carjackings) will not be tolerated."

Weitzel said that too often the task force's legislative initiative had been characterized as singling out juveniles for car theft.

“This is about preventing violent carjackings that in some cases kids are doing at the order of a gang member so the cars can be used in other crimes,” he said.  

CPD figures show that the city had approximately 1,000 carjackings in 2017, the highest amount in a decade. That total was up from 682 in 2016, more than double the numbers from 2015 and 2014.