 "The most important responsibility of law enforcement is to keep
people safe," said Illinois State Police Director Monken. "We can
never stop working to improve in this area, and with the continued
decline in the state's crime rate, we are moving in the right
direction."
During 2008, law enforcement agencies throughout the state
reported a total of 456,359 indexed crimes, compared with 457,071 in
2007, a difference of 712 fewer crimes being committed.
Index crimes compiled by the Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting
Program are comprised of offenses considered to be the most
prevalent and apt to be reported to law enforcement agencies. The
eight index crimes include both crimes against people and crimes
against property. The four types against people are murder, criminal
sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated battery and aggravated
assault. The four against property are burglary, theft, motor
vehicle theft and arson.
The crime rate index was down in the
following categories:
-
Arson decreased by
9.9 percent, the largest decrease recorded for any index crime
over the past five years.
-
Aggravated
assault-battery and motor vehicle theft both decreased over 4
percent.
-
Theft decreased by
0.8 percent.
-
Criminal sexual assault decreased by
0.2 percent.
The following categories showed an
increased crime rate index:
"The increase in homicides in Illinois has all law enforcement
agencies troubled as we work to reduce this phenomenon," Monken
said. "The Illinois State Police is currently involved in several
initiatives to reverse this trend."
Those initiatives are as follows:
-
Participation in
nine major crime task forces in the Chicago metropolitan area
that combine numerous law enforcement agencies for staffing and
resources to address homicides that occur within those
communities.
-
Implementation of
a major crimes response protocol to respond to significant cases
in jurisdictions not supported by a major crime task force.
-
High-intensity patrol tactics in
high-crime areas of Chicago suburbs to reduce guns within those
communities. The Violent Crime Initiative resulted in the
seizure of 48 weapons in 2008.
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-
Participation in
the East St. Louis Violence Crime Suppression Initiative, which
combines federal, state and local law enforcement to target gun
violence in the East St. Louis metropolitan area.
-
Participation in
various Illinois child death review teams, which examine child
fatalities, including homicides. These groups can recommend ways
to protect children through new policy implementation by state
agencies.
-
Partnership with
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace
guns seized in crimes and determine how those guns ended up in
the hands of a criminal. The FOID system allows law enforcement
to restrict gun purchases to non-felons.
-
Participation in
20 multi-jurisdictional narcotics task forces that focus efforts
on violent criminal organizations trafficking narcotics and
violence throughout Illinois.
-
The Statewide Terrorism and
Intelligence Center, which is run by the Illinois State Police,
tracks violent crime in Illinois and provides analytical
resources to state and local agency investigators of violent
crime.
The following is a breakdown of crime
rates encompassing all crimes for areas throughout the state:
-
Chicago, up 3.1
percent
-
State minus
Chicago, down 2.2 percent
-
Cook County, up 2.5
percent
-
Suburban Cook
County, up 1.0 percent
-
Collar counties,
down 3.3 percent
-
Urban counties,
down 3.3 percent
-
Rural counties, down 4.0 percent
Crime statistics are available at
http://www.isp.state.il.us/crime/cii2008.cfm.
[Text from file received from
Illinois State Police]
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