IL: People with sex and gun convictions are required to register with police. CPD can’t keep up.
Thousands of people in Chicago are on a criminal conviction registry, including registries for gun crimes, sex offenses and murder and violence against youth. People on the registry have to show up yearly, quarterly or weekly or risk getting locked-up. But WBEZ has found men are repeatedly being turned away because of staffing shortages in the Chicago Police Department’s registry office.
Data from public records show CPD routinely registered more than 1,000 people per month in 2018. By the end of 2022, that number had been cut nearly in half.
The team that registers people is “a unit that for some reason the Chicago Police Department, especially the bureau detectives, who oversee this unit, do not care if it succeeds. And right now it is failing,” said Patty Casey, a former Chicago Police Commander who oversaw the registries until she retired in June 2021.
Casey called the situation inhumane — and said people who are trying to comply with the law should be able to do that.
Madeleine Behr, the policy manager at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation which provides free legal services for victims of sexualized violence, said CAASE clients sometimes call detectives assigned to their cases and detectives tell them they can’t meet because they are busy doing compliance checks. She said those detectives are busy re-arresting people for technical violations, such as failing to update an address, instead of interviewing victims who need immediate help.
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Hello, it is amazing how much of a burden this registration is becoming and the lack of evidence showing the it is effective. However, the collateral consequences from the registration is disastrous. It is a shame the police could decide to not enforce this like the other state that has their sheriff’s department is now selecting not to enforce a registration for citizens to register under thr new gun laws or registration act. So many are now claiming it is unconstitutional, does not prevent crimes, people can find them out, etc.. All the arguments that were pushed to the courts when it came to the sex offender registration. They allowed the passing of these laws under thr guise of it being civil law, to protect the public, to aide law enforcement, etc.. So now they cry afoul when it is applied to them.
I wonder how this will play out.
Sounds like a catch 22 to me. Can’t register because the cops turn you away, then they arrest you for failing to register. A case like that could be easily beaten in court, but at what cost? A person charged, even though he or she tried to register, would be subject to sit in jail awaiting trial and most likely losing their job. With no income, they would be facing homelessness next.
Michigan law states we must register at an agency having jurisdiction over us. Usually I went in order of first going to a local police station. If there was none, I went to the county Sheriff station. During the covid lockdowns, we were exempt by court order then afterwards the sheriff was doing registration by appointment only, so I started going to the local state police post. It ended up being more convenient to me because the station was close to my work, and I could get there on my lunch break and be back to work before my hour was up. I also found the state police treated me with more dignity and respect than the sheriff office, who were pretty decent themselves. On my last verification, the trooper asked me why I’m coming to the state police post instead of the sheriff office in (name of my city withheld for privacy). I told him it was more convenient for me and since the state police maintain the registry, I’d rather go to the top agency. He told me that actually I could go to any police station or law enforcement agency in the state, and since I work in Wixom, Michigan, I could even go the the Wixom PD if I wanted. I told him I wasn’t sure about that, since I only work in Wixom, and don’t live there. He said, “So you’re driving all the way here from (My home city) just to register?” I said no, that my workplace is only a 15 minute drive away and its more convenient to do on my lunch break instead of leaving work a couple hours early to go to the sheriff office and losing money. He just said “Makes sense to me”. The state police are much faster about getting me in and out. Normally I’m only in there for about 5 minutes tops. Longer of there’s someone ahead of me, which is rare. I told the trooper that I’m not sure about his statement saying I could go anywhere because the law states I must go to an agency having jurisdiction over me, and as long as he didn’t have a problem with it, I would continue coming to the state police post. He said its not an issue and that he was basically trying to help me out. The state police are really cool about it too, and also very discreet if someone else is in the lobby waiting for other business, which I appreciate. I’ve had other agencies make it a point to announce to everyone in the lobby that there’s a “sex offender” present. Not so at the state police post in Oak Park.
At first, I was all for registering people convicted of other crimes in order to bloat the system and make law enforcement’s job tough, but knowing that any registry is a bad idea, plus the thought of a catch 22 situation makes me rethink that. Plus not all cops are bad guys, as the guys at the state police post have shown. Even though compliance checks are not mandated by Michigan law, if a state police trooper showed up at the door and said, “Look, I don’t want to do this but my supervisor is forcing me to do it”, I’d most likely comply with him instead of cussing him out and slamming the door in his face. I give respect where respect is given.