Giannoulias doles out $21M in grants to fight carjacking surge
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on Thursday plans to announce $21 million in grants to police departments and task forces across the state in an effort to tamp down on a three-year surge in armed carjackings.
More than half of that total funding is earmarked for the Illinois State Police and the Chicago Police Department as the city grapples with some of the highest numbers of carjackings seen in at least a generation.
“It’s destroying communities,” Giannoulias told the Sun-Times ahead of the grant announcement. “It’s causing people to leave the state, making people second-guess putting their kids in the backseat. It can happen at 10 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon.
“We want to give law enforcement every resource we can to help identify and prosecute these criminals,” said Giannoulias, the first-term Democrat elected last year to replace the long-serving former Secretary of State Jesse White.
Almost half the grant total — nearly $10.3 million — will go to the Illinois State Police Expressway Safety Enforcement Group, while about $1.5 million is going to the Chicago Police Department’s Major Auto Theft Investigations unit.
The money is slated to supplement police budgets for license plate readers, helicopters, tracking devices, GPS software and other technology to track down carjackers, as well as to help cover salaries for additional investigators.
Chicago has a higher rate of carjackings than any other area of Illinois, according to figures from the city and state.
More than 1,600 armed carjackings were reported in the city last year, which marked an 11% decrease from 2021 — but was still higher than any other year dating back at least two decades.
Chicago carjacking reports more than doubled from 603 in 2019 to 1,413 in 2020. They hit an apex of 1,849 in 2021. More than 250 have already been reported this year.
Giannoulias said it’s a personal issue for him as well, after being carjacked with a group of basketball teammates on the city’s West Side in 1998.
Giannoulias was a senior in high school in 1998, driving with a group of teammates to the state three-point shooting competition in Champaign. Their vehicle was hijacked by a group of people wielding guns and knives in the Austin neighborhood.
“It was a brutal experience. It leaves a scar you never forget,” he said. “I hate the thought of anyone else going through that.”
Other grants are going to the Illinois Statewide Auto Theft Task Force, which is led by Secretary of State police ($3.4 million); the Metro East Auto Theft Task Force ($2.5 million); the Greater Peoria Auto Crimes Task Force ($2.1 million); and the Tri-County Auto Theft Task Force ($1.8 million).
The funding comes partially from a $1 assessment on auto insurance policies that goes to the Illinois Vehicle Hijacking and Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention and Insurance Verification Council.