Chicago police step up enforcement related to drag racing, data show
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A night of racing turned deadly after a shooting in Brighton Park where police said someone opened fire, hitting five people and killing three of them.
They were gathered watching a caravan of more than 100 cars doing donuts and blocking traffic at Archer and Kedzie. CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey dug into the numbers to see if the ordinance really has been effective or not.
That ordinance was passed in July to help police crack down on street racing and drifting by allowing them to tow cars and issue fines.
But since then, the problem has persisted, leading to questions about whether the law is tough enough.
The ordinance was supposed to be an effort to prevent sights like the one seen early Sunday morning, by fining anyone who participates in illegal street racing or drifting between $5,000 and $10,000 and allowing Chicago police to tow cars that were involved.
But it didn't appear to discourage the crowd gathered at Archer and Kedzie over the weekend.
As of Friday, CPD said it's made 35 arrests, impounded 26 vehicles, and made 72 "requests" for vehicle impounds related to the new ordinance.
According to data obtained through FOIA by the CBS 2 Investigators, enforcement is up considerably. Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 28 of this year, there were only seven impounds for illegal street racing.
For all of 2021, there were also just seven impounds, and there were no impounds at all in 2020.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), who sponsored the ordinance, told me it's not the law that's to blame. He said the incident "appears to have gone on for some time without a timely police response."
Police have gotten a lot of calls.
According to data obtained by a public records request by the CBS 2 Investigators, in 2022, up until mid-August, there were about 1,800 unique racing incidents that police responded to.
The Loop, had the most with 142 reported drag racing events, followed by 116 in West Lawn and 101 calls on the Lower West Side.
Arthur Lurigio, professor of criminal justice and psychology at Loyola University Chicago, told CBS 2 he agrees that a crowd like the one seen on Sunday required a more robust response.
"I think we are able to tell in advance whether these gatherings are going to occur," Lurigio said. "So what we should be doing is dispersing them before they become a critical mass of people who are going to be difficult or impossible to disperse without serious clashes between the police."
Lurigio added he feels these cases need to be charged more aggressively to really deter offenders.
"You can pile on one offense on top of the other," he said. " But I don't think it should be only handled in the context of traffic ordinances."
About two months ago, Supt. David Brown said he would be interested in pursuing possible amendments to the ordinance, that could possibly include going after not just the racers but the spectators as well. We checked in and so far, no updates on that push.
