Justice is denied for most shooting victims in Chicago
No one expects the Chicago Police Department to solve every crime that takes place in our big city. But the dismally low number of arrests tied to nonfatal shootings detailed in a Sun-Times investigation over the weekend likely raised alarm bells with many citizens who are concerned about violence.
A paltry 1,200 arrests were made in cases for more than 19,000 people who were injured in shootings since 2018.
In 2024 alone, there were a mere 141 arrests in 2,300 nonfatal shootings — a 6% "clearance" rate. This was reported recently by Andy Grimm and Tom Schuba of the Sun-Times, with assistance from freelance journalist Andy Boyle and WBEZ data projects editor Alden Loury.
Most of the cases that end up "closed" without an arrest tend to take place in some of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods, perpetuating the problem as suspects remain at large, free to fire their weapons and hurt — or kill — more people.
Victims like Tom Wagner, who was shot during a carjacking on the West Side four years ago, is wondering where his justice is. The rest of us should be asking the same question for him and others who keep calling police for updates only to be told no one was actively investigating their shootings anymore.
Detectives are saddled with an unmanageable amount of cases compared to their counterparts in other big cities, which is partly why 80% percent or more of nonfatal shooting investigations are "suspended" each year and slightly fewer than half of all cases are suspended within 30 days.
"Even if you wanted to run down every case like [it was] a murder, there’s just no time to do it," one retired detective said.
There is no question witnesses, including victims, who aren't interested in cooperating with police can exacerbate such challenges.
The investigations of about 1,500 nonfatal shootings since 2018 were dropped because the victims didn’t want to offer assistance to officers. It's hardly news that distrust of cops runs deep in some neighborhoods. In some communities, there is still contempt for police over decades of wrongful convictions when men and women were left to languish in prison for crimes they didn't commit.
It leads to a vicious cycle: Someone is shot but doesn't cooperate with police. No one is charged, and the offender remains on the street.
It's going to take more effort by cops and victims to solve these crimes.
“That first time you talk to [the victim or a witness] at the scene, the shooter might be right there,” a detective told the Sun-Times reporters. “The [victim] might just be mad or scared.
“They don’t expect us to do anything. They don’t think we care. And the way to show that you care is to go back and ask them again.
“And maybe they really can’t help you with that case. But they might know something about another case. And, if they know you are the kind of detective that cares and keeps working, they might help you out on that one.”
Walls can and must be broken down to get important information.
Here's something else that might help: Taking a cue from Denver, our police department, this year, assigned 58 detectives citywide to exclusively focus on shooting investigations.
After Denver implemented its "Firearm Assault Shoot Team," the FAST unit, in 2020, the clearance rate for nonfatal shootings shot up from 17% to 64% a year later. We can only hope that a similar pilot program here can boost Chicago's clearance rate.
Surviving such a harrowing experience — getting shot — is tough enough. Knowing that the culprit hasn't been caught, and may never be punished, only adds to that horrific trauma.
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