Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel

In the first months of new Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s first term, some suburban police chiefs are worried that rules are being watered down in Cook County for serious retail theft charges that can be classified as felonies.

Foxx’s office published guidelines in December 2016 that local police say are making it more difficult to charge with a felony shoplifters who steal something of high value —  more than $1,000.

The State’s Attorney’s new guidelines say retail thefts won’t be charged as a Class 4 felony, the lowest category of felony, unless the value of stolen goods exceeds $1,000 and the offender has 10 previous convictions.

Police chiefs worry that Cook County is writing new rules that are “inconsistent with state law,” wrote Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel in a letter from the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police in a December response. The state statute’s threshold for upgrading a retail theft from a misdemeanor to a felony is merchandise worth more than $500 for a Class 3 felony and one previous criminal conviction for a Class 4. Class 4 felonies are punishable by one to three years in prison, while Class 3 felonies can be punishable by a two- to three-year prison sentence.

“It is our position Ms. Foxx should pursue legislation in Springfield if she believes change is necessary rather than arbitrarily setting her own guidelines,” Weitzel wrote.

Suburban chiefs from Riverside, Wilmette and Orland Park met with Foxx and First Assistant Eric Sussman Jan. 19, Weitzel said.

“To her credit, she did meet with us,” Weitzel said. “[Foxx] has a different view than we do,” Weitzel said. “In our opinion, you need to consult with [local law enforcement agencies] before you make changes because our officers are the ones doing the work.” Weitzel said large-value retail thefts can be related to professional criminal theft rings whose members steal specifically for resale to unscrupulous business owners. Heroin and opioid addictions can also lead persons to shoplift to gain money for drugs, he said.

Weitzel made it clear he spoke for a group of suburban Cook County chiefs who had all agreed to protest the new changes. The chiefs asked the Cook County ASA to drop the theft threshold to $750 and reconsider the 10-conviction rule.

“Sometimes our fellow police chiefs downstate call it the “state of Cook County” because Cook County just makes its own rules,” Weitzel said.

One way Cook County keeps a handle on the volume of cases processed is the

“felony review” process. Felony review is a mechanism for weeding out criminal cases that don’t make the most efficient use of states attorney resources, said Sussman. A 24-hour hotline is available for local police departments who must request permission to upgrade charges on an arrest to felony-level.

In the case of shoplifting, Sussman said, “police departments can charge people with retail theft misdemeanors on their own. If they want to charge them with a felony, they need to come to the state’s attorney’s office to request it,” he said.

“We have priorities,” Sussman said. “We don’t have the resources to prosecute every case that could be a felony. We start with a premise that we cannot prosecute every case that merits a felony when there are 700 homicides every year in Cook County. That’s where we are going to spend our resources. That’s the allocation we’ve made,” he said.

Sussman said the new guidelines were part of an effort to be more transparent, so local law enforcement agencies knew what parameters the felony review process used.

But Weitzel and other chiefs say bumping up the threshold from one previous conviction to 10 for a Class 4 felony is a shocking adjustment.

“I don’t think I’ve ever even met anyone with 10 criminal convictions,” Weitzel said. A more typical profile of a retail theft offender police might want to charge with a felony is someone with “49 arrests and maybe three convictions,” Weitzel said.

“I’m not one to want to lock people up, especially not juveniles,” Weitzel said. “But these are adults and our officers need to follow the state statutes.”

Sussman said using the single-conviction standard leads to excessive prison time for someone with a past conviction who “steals $29 worth of shampoo from CVS.” That person may have a drug addiction, he said. “Why does that person need to be in the felony system? Why does that person need more than one year of jail time? The majority of these cases are extremely poor people, or people who have substance abuse problems. We’re continuing to lock those people up and hit them with felony and the reality is it is not working. It is not helping.”

Every felony review request is taken on a “case-by-case basis” Sussman said. He personally looks over felony review records and welcomes any questions the chiefs may have, he said. “I’ve seen no evidence that this policy is leading to a risk in public safety.”

Weitzel said some retail theft arrests also turn violent with offenders committing battery or worse on store security or responding police.

“These are our patrol officers that have to make these arrests,” Weitzel said.

Sussman said any battery charges are evaluated separately by the felony review board.

Weitzel said suburban chiefs were worried that similar “downgrades” might be in store for other felonies such as aggravated DUI. He said chiefs are also worried about the proposed end of the cash bail system in Illinois and the prospect of legalized recreational cannabis, now on the General Assembly agenda in Springfield as a tax-revenue generator. Local law enforcement wants input before changes like this are made, Weitzel said.

“I agree 100 percent that there needs to be good communication and buy-in with our local law enforcement partners,” Sussman said. “We’re always happy to talk with them about these issues, they’re our partners.”

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— Cook Co. police chiefs protest new felony-shoplifting rules —