Chicago and Cook County leaders have allowed the city to devolve into a refuge for those who repeatedly commit serious crimes and face virtually no consequences. Law-abiding citizens are paying the price in dwindling faith in our institutions as the broken justice system in Chicago is failing at its most essential job: holding violent offenders accountable.
Last year, the clearance rate for nonfatal shootings sat at around 6%, the Sun-Times reported in March. For those few arrested, the system’s common response is not decisive justice but a quick return to the streets via electronic monitoring or nominal court supervision.
Many people accused of violent felonies, who remain in the community, violate the terms of their release or skip court dates, often without repercussions. Crime watch website CWB Chicago reported in 2024 that almost 20% of felony arrests are individuals on pretrial release. The message: Chicago is a safe haven for repeat violent offenders, not their victims.
This revolving door of criminality isn’t only a moral crisis — it’s a financial disaster. Chicago has spent over a billion dollars on police-related settlements and judgments. Worse, new mandates from the SAFE-T Act and the federal consent decree create ever more lucrative paths for suing the city and police. Every million dollars spent on litigation is a million less invested in public safety, schools, mental health or economic opportunity.
This breakdown has both human and financial costs. Communities that most need consistent enforcement suffer the highest levels of violent crime committed by individuals who have multiple prior contacts with the system, while growing volumes of litigation divert scarce taxpayer resources from core public‑safety and neighborhood investments. What can be done about it?
Deterring crime begins with a visible police presence on every police beat, enough officers to respond to high‑priority 911 calls in real time and enough detectives to close cases with arrests. It requires community policing to be extended to every CTA station and on trains. It requires a police presence in public places such as schools and parks. Unfortunately, the administration recoils at more police being a part of any safety solution — except protecting the Democratic National Convention
This is less a revenue issue and more an issue of budgetary priorities. Reduced police strength has increased overtime to well over $150 million annually — enough to restore 1,200 officers. Money the CTA currently spends on private security combined with transit safety funding, available in the state’s transit rescue plan, could add 600 more officers to CTA public security.
The SAFE-T Act was framed as a tool for fairness but has instead undermined community security. If reform is to be meaningful, the system must be recalibrated. Serious and repeat offenders — including those victimizing police, witnesses or vulnerable populations — should be presumed ineligible for pretrial release. The state should also guarantee “truth in sentencing” so that habitual, violent criminals serve full sentences imposed by the courts. There also needs to be full transparency for SAFE-T Act data.
Chicago need not wait for state permission to act. As a home‑rule municipality, the city can and should enact its own ordinance — call it the Chicago Safety Act — granting the power to impose up to 364 days in jail and significant fines for those accused of offenses such as threatening police or witnesses or committing hate crimes, weapons violations, domestic violence and vehicle theft. Such cases can be prosecuted directly by the city’s Law Department, ensuring they are an immediate public safety priority.
Moreover, the city must pass an enforceable public nuisance ordinance to provide real consequences for lower‑level but persistent public offenses that undermine safety and civility, such as the blocking of streets, damage to property, retail theft, harassment and more. Existing tools — impounding vehicles, confiscating property, levying major fines — must become the norm, not the exception. The City Council has the power to act.
This new safety act should include the creation within the Law Department of a division to rigorously defend against frivolous claims, to insist on full judicial scrutiny before settling, and to file lawsuits and countersuits seeking restitution on behalf of the city when appropriate. Where outside counsel add value, they should be retained — but only judiciously. Meanwhile, the city should press state and federal lawmakers to seek reasonable limits on civil settlements.
Long‑term safety depends on investments in education, mental health, drug treatment and economic revitalization — especially for communities ravaged by historic disinvestment. However, there’s no substitute for a justice system that keeps dangerous and habitual criminals off the streets and ensures real accountability for criminal behavior. Unfortunately, despite the progress made by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke and Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling, that is still not the case.
Paul Vallas is an adviser for the Illinois Policy Institute. He ran against Brandon Johnson for Chicago mayor in 2023 and was previously budget director for the city and CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
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