Crime & Law
Cook County’s Top Prosecutor Eileen O’Neill Burke Marks 100 Days in Office With Focus on Tackling Gun Crimes, Retail Theft
Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)
More than half of those charged in Cook County with felony firearm cases involving modified weapons have been detained pending trial during the first three-plus months under new State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke — a figure she lauded and said is “frankly too low.”
O’Neill Burke this week marked her first 100 days in office since being sworn in as Cook County’s top prosecutor following her election victory last fall.
The former appellate judge who replaced Kim Foxx immediately enacted a series of policy changes in December, tasking prosecutors with seeking to detain all those charged with felony offenses involving a modified firearm — such as “ghost” guns or those that include an extended or drum magazine or an automatic switch.
Since then, O’Neill Burke’s office has requested pre-trial detention in 202 felony firearm cases involving those modified weapons, and in those cases, judges have granted those requests 115 times.
“On the day I was sworn in, I said we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the shocking numbers of lives shattered by gun violence,” O’Neill Burke said in a statement. “That remains a guiding principle of this office. We will continue seeking pre-trial detention for offenders who use these weapons of war to terrorize our communities, and prison time when we win a conviction. A 58 percent pre-trial detention rate for automatic weapons is frankly too low.”
Through her first 100 days, O’Neill Burke’s office has a detention rate of 51% in felony and misdemeanor domestic violence cases (1,128 total cases), 85% in felony crimes on CTA train and bus lines (42 cases) and 100% in domestic violence murder and attempted murder cases (12 cases), according to data released by the state’s attorney’s office Friday.
As a candidate, O’Neill Burke criticized her predecessor, saying Foxx — who opted not to run again after eight years in office — didn’t do enough to tackle violent crime and had a soft approach to low-level crimes.
Last month, O’Neill Burke instructed her office to stop diverting people with gun possession charges to the county’s Restorative Justice Community Courts, which reroute people with nonviolent charges from criminal courts to an alternative program.
“Our partnership with State’s Attorney Burke and her office is rooted in a shared mission of seeking justice for victims of crimes and their families,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said in a statement. “Throughout the past 100 days, we have built a strong foundation of collaboration that is focused on strengthening gun crime enforcement and holding criminal offenders accountable.”
O’Neill Burke also said she would not continue Foxx’s felony prosecution policy for shoplifting cases, which requires that stolen goods must be worth at least $1,000 rather than the $300 limit set forth under state law.
The state’s attorney’s office has approved 857 felony retail theft charges in 773 separate cases through O’Neill Burke’s first 100 days.
Illinois Retail Merchants Association President and CEO Rob Karr said O’Neill Burke has thus far “proven … to be a strong ally of the business community.”
“For years, shop owners felt unheard by prosecutors as they faced increasingly violent acts of organized retail crime,” he said in a statement. “By holding criminals accountable for felony retail theft as set by state statute, she has taken the important first steps of providing safety and stability needed for businesses to invest in their neighbors and neighborhoods.”
