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DuPage committee asks for clearer crime data after board members podcast comments on Oakbrook Mall
Summary
Committee members debated a board members podcast remarks linking migrants to a rise in crime and sought detailed statistics from the State's Attorneys office, the sheriff and Oak Brook police. Members urged use of the countys crime-transparency portal and requested staff-run data to clarify trends.
At a March 4 meeting of the DuPage County Judicial and Public Safety Committee, members pressed for clearer crime statistics after a committee member said a podcast post had described "a spike in our crime" and cited shoplifting and escapes from Oakbrook Mall.
The discussion focused on where elected officials and the public should find reliable counts. The committee sought data that would show whether incidents at Oakbrook Mall and elsewhere constitute an unusual uptick or isolated recurring incidents. "We haveto be transparent, and we certainly need to explain via facts what is actually going on in DuPage County," the committee member who raised the podcast remarks said (name not specified in the meeting record).
Why it matters: several members said statements to large social-media audiences can shape public perception and should be supported by local incident data. Member U, who works with county mapping staff, said the countys transparency portal aggregates incident reports from municipalities: "Tom Ricker and the GIS stafftake up data from each municipality...they put that into the transparency portal," Member U said. Member Monig, who said she has done police ride-alongs, warned that shoplifting and other offenses are committed by a wide variety of people and not solely by migrants: "There are people that shoplift that are not migrants."
Members also described what some press releases show. Member Dysart said she receives State's Attorney press releases and estimated from that source that migrant-related shoplifting cases at Oakbrook occur roughly monthly. "Based on the press releases I've seen...maybe it's about once a month that we see migrants accused of shoplifting at Oakbrook Mall," Dysart said.
Committee chair Evans offered to request formal statistics: "I can get statistics run or ask the State's Attorney to have them run," Evans said. Members suggested asking the sheriff's office, the State's Attorney's Office and the Oak Brook Police Department for clarifying data and urged staff to report back on how the transparency portal covers municipal versus unincorporated incidents.
The committee did not take formal action beyond asking staff to obtain and compile incident reports and prosecution statistics. Several members repeated calls for careful public statements by elected officials and for the county to make municipal-level crime data clearer to residents. The item closed with agreement to pursue those data requests and to return with findings.
The transcript record shows committee members raised the issue under new business and repeatedly asked staff or the State's Attorneys office to produce searchable comparisons (2024 v. 2023) and more detailed Oakbrook Mall figures.
