What Englewood residents need most is officers on the street
Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling was raised in Englewood and he began his career with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) as a Patrolman in the 7th (Englewood) District in 1992. After spending years training recruits at the Police Academy, Snelling returned to the 7th District as a Watch Operations Lieutenant before being elevated to command the district. Snelling was later promoted Deputy Chief of Area 2.
Superintendent Snelling knows Englewood and Englewood knows Superintendent Snelling.
A veritable river of drugs, illegal guns, and gangs, Englewood suffered 38 homicides and recorded another 187 shot in 2024 — trailing only Austin — according to crime figures compiled by Heyjackass.com. Gloomy statistics, Englewood residents were further unnerved as the neighborhood endured 89 sexual assaults, 468 robberies, 420 aggravated batteries, 224 burglaries, 535 thefts, and 919 motor vehicle thefts for the whole of 2024.
Though Englewood is beset by a specific form of violence — gun violence — from which residents cannot free itself, anti-poverty, and intervention programs such as gun buybacks and violence interrupters have all failed the neighborhood. Worse, criminal justice reform legislation — the SAFE-T Act — and police officers hamstrung by reform measures and intense public scrutiny have compelled CPD to retreat from performing strong, vigilant policing.
A community awash in crime, some long-overdue relief could come to Englewood’s forbearing residents under a new pilot program brokered between Superintendent Snelling and Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke. Under a new initiative rolled out on January 1, the “Felony Review Bypass Program,” officers serving in Chicago Police Department’s 7th District are now able to have some felony firearms charges approved by the District’s on-duty Watch Operations Lieutenant.
A program created to reduce the length of time arresting officers spend speaking by phone with the State’s Attorney’s Office Felony Review Unit (FRU) for the filing of gun charges, approval by the lieutenant will allow officers to process an arrest more swiftly and return them where they are needed most — Englewood’s streets.
To the casual observer, this new program may appear meaningless, but Englewood’s law-abiding residents do stand to benefit from it greatly. For those unfamiliar with how FRU operates, the office serves one purpose: To evaluate the facts of a case and render a decision over whether to accept or decline felony charges sought by Police.
At CCSAO, gun possession cases are generally handled over the phone by a line Assistant State’s Attorneys (ASAs) assigned to Felony Review Unit. A division which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ASA work in small groups in 12-hours shifts and under the direct guidance of three Felony Review Trial Supervisors. Accomplished 1st and 2nd Chairs, Felony Review Trial Supervisors rotate from felony trial courtrooms to serve six months in FRU.
Considering the constant disruptions on Chicago’s streets, FRU Trial Supervisors are frequently called out to CPD Districts to contend with the most complex cases, primarily murders. Line ASAs serving in FRU are often left to address lesser felonies, such as attempted murders, aggravated battery, or sexual assault. For each 12-hour shift, one line ASA is assigned to manage what is referred to as “phone cases,” which are felonies, but do not involve a victim sustaining an injury. These matters encompass gun cases, retail thefts, forgeries, or a DUI in which no great bodily harm is suffered.
If, for example, an evening arrives in which Felony Review Trial Supervisors or line ASAs are deeply engaged in the field or at a Police District taking statements from victims, witnesses, or detainees — which is frequent — an ASA presiding over phone cases can be overwhelmed. It is not uncommon for an ASA to be saddled with up to 10 felony cases at once, creating a backlog. The excess number of cases can result in officers seeking felony approval for a gun case to wait for as long as two hours, preventing police from being on the streets. This prolonged wait period also denies residents police protection.
The Felony Review Bypass Program is innovative and has some obvious benefits for residents living in CPD’s 7th District. An enlightened strategy, the new initiative demonstrates how Cook County’s new State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke and Superintendent Snelling enjoy a harmonious relationship, their views on combatting crime align, and they are willing to work together toward the goal of concentrating on gun crime. Moreover, this new program also reveals how SA Burke and Superintendent Snelling both recognized imperfections in Felony Review, how those faults placed residents at an immeasurable disadvantage, and how a narrowly tailored adjustment to FRU procedure was necessary. Where the Felony Review Bypass Program will be most effective is it will substantially reduce the amount of time officers are forced to wait for FRU to approve felony firearms charges.
A new policy, the Felony Review Bypass Program will not be without critics. Though this initiative appears to have eliminated FRU from carefully reviewing requests for felony charges, such concerns are overwrought. The bypass only allows the on-duty Watch Operations Lieutenant — men and women with ample experience and sound judgment to determine if there is sufficient evidence to move forward with charges — to process the arrest expeditiously for the purpose of returning officers to the street. Contrary to any critic of the program, FRU will continue to review every gun case before the offender appears in Bond Court for a Bond (Detention) hearing. Furthermore, the CCSAO will still retain the authority over whether to decline the case should their exploration of the matter expose flaws in the arrest.
Though we are routinely reminded we must “do something” about neighborhoods besieged by gun crime, for far too long, Englewood residents have been left to fend for themselves. The Felony Review Bypass Program is one such effort which may improve their lives in a practical way.
A bold and well-conceived policy, the paramount value in the Felony Review Bypass Program is it returns officers back to the streets quickly after an arrest. The residents of Englewood need officers on the street, being visible, responding to calls for service, and serving the neighborhood rather than being bogged down on the phone.
The call to save a neighborhood is most compelling when it serves to aid a neighborhood’s neediest inhabitants. For eight years, Englewood residents have sat by helplessly as their concerns went unheard. Today, however, they have a State’s Attorney and Police Superintendent cooperating effectively and answering the call to fight crime with a realistic yet innovative revision of the Felony Review system.
