Police turn away people trying to register, leaving them at risk of arrest. Some crime victims say the system fails them too.
Outside a red brick building in Chicago’s Burnside neighborhood, Odell Whitehorn Jr. recently stood in a line with over a dozen men on a bitterly cold morning. Whitehorn is on the Illinois murder and violence against youth registry, for a crime he committed when he was eighteen-years-old, in 2000. Once a year, Whitehorn is required to register with the Chicago police. This was the fifth time he said he’d attempted to register in the previous couple of weeks.
On the other occasions, Whitehorn said police turned him away because it was too crowded and they didn’t have enough capacity to register everyone. Other men in line complained they’ve faced the same problem.
Whitehorn nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he considered his impossible situation. If he gives up and doesn’t register he could end up in prison. But he can’t skip work and risk losing his job to keep coming back again and again.
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.
I guess the staffing levels show just how valuable the CPD considers these registries. According to the article, “…Chicago is wrestling with big concerns over public safety and how to use its limited resources to fight violence.” So, they just must not consider the registries helpful in that fight against violence. If they did, they’d be all over them.
“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.”
Yikes! That’s just insane! No system could keep up with that. Politicians and people who push this BS deserve the downfall for society they’re creating. When people ask “what has happened to this country?”, it’s this. This right here. Rather than making things better but offering services and help to mitigate things from every happening in the first place, we punish, punish, and punish some more. It’s like cutting a board once more because the first cut made it to short.
Modern and progressive European countries must look at us like we’re Iran or China. It’s sad what this once-free nation of ours has become!!!
What I want to know is has anyone actually been to the new location at 9059 South Cottage Grove and succeeded/failed to register? I have to register a temporary change of address for a brief visit out of state and am wondering if I’ll make it. I’m elderly and disabled and really can’t stand in a line for long.
Hey that’s a good thing. And if common sense legislation like a gun registry is too much to handle, then we’re on the right track. Maybe we’ll see the death of the SOR after all in my lifetime.
“It’s working so well in Chicago, we should do it here!” says braindead politician.
MO: Republican Representative proposes “Violent Offender Registry”
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According to mystatelie.com IL lost almost 150,000 residents to other states in 2021. Gee I wonder why!
I love it when law-enforcement agencies struggle to keep up with the laws they created.
When I lived in los Angels, there would be at least 20-30 people in front of the police station, sometimes it would take me 3 to 4 hours to register, even law-enforcement admitted that the whole 290 process was becoming unmanageable.
this is the perfect time to write all these sheriff’s departments. Registries are unconstitutional by force. The same idea that is to protect the public from sex crimes are the same ideas to protect the public from guns.
Many many of these cops will be affected by the gun registry. First it’ll be private. Then it’ll be public. They’ll expand the ban to more guns when they win. Then they’ll make a new registry for something else.
They advocated for the sex registry, and now they have to deal with the consequences of giving the government green light to make registries.
Every single one of these sheriff departments websites has a link to the sex offender registry. We need to demand they make the gun registry public and available on their site.
We need to know who and where these people live so we can make sure they are not a further danger to society.
Also, write the legislature and express support for the gun registry. If you want to see change. Make the system conflict with itself