Police chief: Joliet has seen a drop in most violent crimes this year

Joliet has seen a drop in most major violent crimes this year and the police department’s rate for clearing homicide cases stands at over 80%.

Those were some of the accomplishments shared by Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans on Wednesday to an audience at the Billie Limacher Bicentennial Park.

The location was chosen for a public safety forum that aimed to encourage more collaboration and dialogue between residents, the police and fire departments. Police and fire officials were on hand to answer questions from residents following speeches by Evans and Joliet Fire Chief Jeff Carey.

“In Joliet, the dialogue is not just beneficial. It is essential for effective policing and overall public safety,” Evans said.

Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy said he plans to have more public safety forums in the future. He said Wednesday was the culmination of what he campaigned on during last year’s election season: community, communication and collaboration.

“We need you to work with us to understand how we can better make this city as safe as possible all the time,” D’Arcy said.

During Evans’ speech, he said aggravated batteries – crimes causing physical harm – are down 5% in Joliet this year compared to the same time period last year. Aggravated shootings are down 53% and reckless shootings are down 33% this year as well, he said.

Shootings overall are down 37% and robberies are down 18%, Evans said. Officers have recovered more than 112 firearms “off the street this year alone,” Evans said.

“The detectives boast a [homicide] clearance rate of over 80% for the second year running. I also like to point out the national average for homicide clearances is between 47% and 52%,” Evans said.

Since this year began, 10 homicides have occurred. That is almost the same amount of homicides at the conclusion of last year in Joliet.

“We need you to work with us to understand how we can better make this city as safe as possible all the time.”

—  Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy speaking at Wednesday's public forum

But Evans noted that seven of those homicides were tied to the tragic mass shooting of the Nance-Esters family last January on West Acres Road. Toyosi Bakare, 28, was another victim killed in that shooting spree but the incident took place outside city limits.

Joliet has not seen as many homicides as 2019, which had 19 victims that year. That number dropped slightly in 2020, then significantly dropped further in 2021 before rising a bit in 2022 and last year.

Between Jan. 1 and June 10 this year, the city had 13 non-fatal shootings that caused injury.

Although some of the high-profile shootings this year have not led to any reported injuries or fatalities, such as the April 2 gun battle outside Merichka’s restaurant. Police have arrested several suspects in that shooting.

As part of a plan to more aggressively reduce violent crime, Evans said his department will continue to hire more officers and move more of them to specialized units.

“Last summer, we made a strategic decision to to put six extra bodies in our tactical unit, hoping that we could slow some of the violent crime down in the city. I think that worked out very well last summer as that unit itself recovered 81 guns in the year 2023,” Evans said.

Evans said the department is budgeted at 286 officers and they are down to 262 officers. Joliet Deputy Police Chief Carlos Matlock, who leads the investigation division, said they’re also understaffed with 22 detectives.

Evans said the department is “doing well” but they have “some challenging times ahead of us as far as staffing.”

“We’d love to have more people in traffic, we’d love to have more people in [Neighborhood-Oriented Policing Team], we’d love to have more people in narcotics and tactical and that will come as soon as we get fully staffed,” Evans said.

Joliet Deputy Police Chief Robert Brown, who leads the patrol division, said the department constantly tracks crime statistics throughout the city and uses that data to move officers to high crime areas.

“We go pretty much where the crime trends are,” Brown said.

Brown said they use data from calls for service, the amount of shots fired in any given area and citizen complaints.

“Every morning, I get a report of where shootings are occurring [and] what time they’re occurring so we can deploy officers based on that,” Brown said.

One critical tool for police has been Ring cameras and Flock Safety cameras, which track license plates.

Matlock said the city has more than 61 Flock Safety cameras throughout the city. D’Arcy said the city has been having issues with Illinois Department of Transportation to install more cameras.

“We sure could use the state to play ball with us on that and help us put those where we need them in the best, most crucial places,” D’Arcy said.

At the conclusion of Wednesday’s forum, Evans said he was “under no illusion that we’re done here.”

“We have a long way to go as a police department. There’s still things to be done but I think at least as far as some of the statistical numbers that I’ve given you today that we’re at least going on the right path,” Evans said.