Retired chief: State laws create lawlessness in suburban crime pattern
[May 13, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A retired police chief says criminal activity has
surged in suburban counties around Chicago.
Federal prosecutors announced charges last week against three alleged
gang members from Chicago in connection with criminal acts in the
suburbs.
In addition, new crimes were reported at more than a dozen businesses in
west and southwest suburban Downers Grove, Oak Brook and Woodridge.
Retired Riverside, Illinois, Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said it’s a
pattern of crime.
“They commit the crimes, whatever they may be, retail theft, robberies,
sometimes even more violent street crimes, and then the [modus operandi]
is to flee east back to the city of Chicago,” Weitzel told The Center
Square. “They’re typically taking the expressways back, whether that be
the Stevenson Expressway [I-55] or the 290.”
Weitzel said Illinois law is part of the problem.
“They’ve played a major role, the SAFE-T Act and the TRUST Act. It’s
creating lawlessness. It’s creating offenders that believe there’s no
accountability, and in some cases there isn’t. Serious felony offenders
are being released from police custody shortly after being arrested,”
Weitzel said.
The SAFE-T Act, which the General Assembly passed in 2021, included the
Pretrial Fairness Act, which ended cash bail in Illinois after being
upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2023. The TRUST Act, signed in
2017, prohibits state and local law enforcement from participating in
immigration enforcement.
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Last week, Illinois U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, called on
sheriffs to defy Illinois’ sanctuary law. Weitzel explained why
sheriffs are more likely than municipal police to cooperate with
U.S. immigration officials.
“If you’re an elected official, an elected sheriff, you have a
little bit more cover. You can’t be removed. Police chiefs, I’m
telling you, they’re not enforcing any of these ICE retainers or
anything, not because they don’t want to, because if they do,
they’ll be removed. They’ll be fired,” Weitzel said.
In addition to last week’s reported crimes in DuPage County, recent
series of retail theft cases affected Will County and suburban Cook
County.
Weitzel said there is no central database for suburban crimes.
“There isn’t a real central deposit area for all of this SAFE-T Act
information. They’ll give you the individuals that are released from
court, but all these individuals, these offenders, that are being
released from the police station because it doesn’t meet the
criteria of the SAFE-T Act, nobody’s tracking that,” Weitzel said.
“Those cases that never go to first appearance court, and believe
me, there’s thousands of them, are not being tracked by anybody.”
Weitzel added that municipalities can fudge the numbers.
“The data can be very misleading,” Weitzel concluded.
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