PATROL PLEA
In wake of recent incidents of violent crime, alderman makes ‘ urgent request’ for more downtown police
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly ( 42nd) has made an “urgent request” for more overnight police patrols on the Lakefront Trail, the downtown Riverwalk and in Streeterville after a 25- year- old Lawndale woman was shot and killed in his ward early Sunday.
Reilly has also requested more surveillance cameras, better lighting and the overnight shutdown, duringwarm weather months, of an underpass at Ohio and Lake Shore Drive used to access the beach, the Lakefront Trail and Navy Pier.
It was near that underpass in the 500 block of East Ohio that 25- yearold Raven Lemons was shot in the head and killed around 2 a. m. Sunday. It was the first downtown homicide reported this year, but violent crime has been on the rise, along with the temperatures.
That includes recent shootings along the Riverwalk, across the street from Millennium Park, at the Red Line station at Clark and Division and at 31st Street beach.
Also last week, a good Samaritan with a broken bottle — and the support of a gaggle of bystanders — stopped a man from escaping after another manwas stabbed on a crowded section of North Avenue Beach. Reilly has apparently had enough. On Monday night, he fired off an email to his constituents outlining the steps he has taken to prevent the traditional summer surge in crime from overwhelming Chicago’s marquee shopping district, aswell as the Riverwalk, Navy Pier, Millennium Park and lakefront beaches, some of the city’s most popular tourist attractions.
“I recently met with Mayor Emanuel and his staff tomake an urgent request for a significant increase in police visibility and beat patrols on this block, the Lakefront Trail, Riverwalk and greater Streeterville between 11 p. m. and 6 a. m., especially on weekends,” Reilly wrote.
Reilly said he expects to hear back from the city by the end of the week.
The alderman noted that the stretch of Ohio Street where Lemons was shot “remains open at all times” and is “proximate to the underpass entry to the Lakefront Trail and is used for access to Navy Pier.”
He said he’s asked the city’s Department of Transportation and the Park District to consider closing gates at that underpass — and possibly others — from midnight to 6 a. m. in warm- weather months. Fewer access points will make it easier for police to patrol the area around the trail overnight, Reilly said.
“I have also requested . . . a field survey of the existing lighting in the area, to determine if any upgrades can be made to improve safety and visibility. We are tasking the Office of Emergency Management ( OEMC) with surveying this stretch of Ohio Street, the Inner Drive and the Ohio Street underpass for potential ( discreetly placed) Police Department cameras to ensure public safety monitoring here on a consistent basis.”
In a follow- up email to the SunTimes, Reilly said, “there is no question” he will have more cameras and enhanced lighting installed near pedestrian underpasses along the Lakefront Trail in the 42nd Ward. “I plan to make that an aldermanic menu funding priority,” he wrote.
In an emailed statement, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said public safety is “our top priority” and he welcomes the “partnership” with Reilly.
“We’re going to continue working closely with him, as we do with everyone else, to ensure we have the right public safety resources in the right places — whether that’s from CPD, OEMC or any other city agency,” Johnson was quoted as saying.
Mike Claffey, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation, had no immediate comment on Reilly’s requests for overnight closure of the Ohio Street underpass.
Melissa Stratton, an OEMC spokeswoman, said the agency would work with the Police Department to “assess the requested areas on Ohio Street, the Inner Drive and the Ohio Street underpass to determine the potential placement or movement of cameras that already exist.”
“In consultation with CPD and OEMC, additional cameras may be obtained and installed through the Aldermanic menu plan, at the Alderman’s discretion,” Stratton wrote in an email.
Last week, Johnson insisted that shootings along the Riverwalk and at 31st Street Beach were no reason for summer tourists and everyday Chicagoans to stay away fromtwo of the city’s most enduring attractions. Reilly is taking no chances. In his email to constituents, the alderman acknowledged that “violent incidents like this are incredibly rare in the Central Business District” but noted that “any criminal incident in downtown Chicago’s 42nd Ward” must be taken very seriously.