Remembering J.J. Bittenbinder: Longtime CPD detective, safety expert, CBS 2 contributor dies at 80
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Former Chicago Police detective, safety expert, and onetime CBS 2 contributor J.J. Bittenbinder died late last month.
Bittenbinder – full name John Joseph Bittenbinder – passed away on Friday, May 26. He was 80 years old.
Bittenbinder was born Sept. 1, 1942, in Buffalo, New York. He grew up in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, as noted in a 1993 Chicago Tribune report.
Bittenbinder served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and joined the Chicago Police Department in 1971, as noted by the Tribune in the 1993 profile.
Bittenbinder served 22 years with the CPD – 18 of them as a homicide detective. The 1993 Tribune profile noted that Bittenbinder worked on most major murder cases in Chicago going back to 1976 and served as the CPD liaison to the FBI during the investigation into the 1982 Tylenol murders.
Over the years, Bittenbinder became known around Chicago and beyond for his presentations on personal safety and ways to avoid being the victim of a crime. In 1992, he rose to a national stage with his PBS television special, "Street Smarts: How to Avoid Being a Victim."
Clad in a three-piece suit and sporting his signature handlebar mustache, Bittenbinder spoke before a studio audience in the special about what it means to be a "tough target" and to outsmart criminal "goofs." He emphasized repeatedly that the most vulnerable person was the most likely to be a target.
"You can't be the weakest one; the most vulnerable one there. You cannot be that one," Bittenbinder said in the special. "You ever see these nature shows that they have on television, where the antelopes are running in a herd and the lions are sneaking up on them? Have you ever seen the lion go after the swiftest and the strongest of the antelopes? He picks the weakest one…. These people are stronger than you are. They're swifter than you are. But you're probably smarter than they are. You know, when we throw these bad guys up against the wall and search them, we don't find any Mensa cards in their pockets."
In the early 1990s, Bittenbinder became a reporter and safety consultant for CBS 2 – filing stories regularly in which he likewise provided advice on how to avoid being a target for crime. In the CBS 2 News clip at the top of this post from July 27, 1993, Bittenbinder has some advice on how to avoid being the victim of a crime on a CTA train or platform.
Bittenbinder went on to become the host of the television series "Tough Target" in 1995. His book, "Tough Target" A Street Smart Guide to Staying Safe," was published in 1997.
In recent years, Bittenbinder became a household name for a new generation – though not in a way he was pleased with. Bittenbinder for many years also gave lectures to community groups and schools – and one of those schools happened to be St. Clement Elementary School in Lincoln Park, where stand-up comedian John Mulaney was a young student at the time.
In his 2017 Netflix special, "John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City," Mulaney focused extensively on Bittenbinder and his "street smarts" presentations at the school.
"Bittenbinder came every year with a program to teach us about the violent world waiting for us outside the school gym – and that program was called 'street smarts!'" Mulaney said in his special. "Time for street smarts with Detective J.J. Bittenbinder – shut up, you're all going to die! Street smarts!"
Mulaney described what he said were presentations by Bittenbinder advising elementary school assemblies on what to do if they were mugged, kidnapped, or grabbed by a stranger.
Bittenbinder voiced his displeasure with how he was depicted in Mulaney's stand-up special. Among other things, Bittenbinder told the Tribune in 2018 that he told adult audiences to keep a money clip with $5 in their pocket so they could avoid giving a mugger their real wallet – and did not tell kids in schools to put a $50 bill in a money clip as Mulaney suggested in his special.
Bittenbinder was also parodied in "Mr. Show with Bob and David."
After retiring from the Chicago Police Department, Bittenbinder spent 10 years as an investigator with the Cook County Sheriff's office. He also participated in numerous cattle drives in Cody, Wyoming.
Visitation for Bittenbinder was held last week.