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Carjackings Now So Common in Chicago that Police Offer Tips to Victims

(Law Enforcement Today) As carjackings skyrocket throughout Chicago, police have issued tips to residents in order to tell them how to prevent being carjacked, and if that isn’t possible, how people should respond if they are victimized, NBC5 in Chicago reported.

Chicago’s finest held a press conference last week, in which they told people to maintain situational awareness while traveling around the city. Superintendent David Brown suggested traveling in pairs with someone sitting in the passenger seat whenever possible.

“One of the tips that we try to give victims is to be aware of your surroundings,” Brown said. “Try as much as possible when you are going from a store, from your car and back to your car to look around to see if you see any suspicious activity.

“If you see something suspicious, this is where you got to call 911 and say there was a suspicious car behind my car, instead of walking up and having an armed confrontation.”

Brown noted that carjackers tend to travel in pairs or fours, typically looking for individuals for an opportunity to come up. He also said offenders typically travel in cars.

He also said that the spate of carjackings has spread into Chicago suburbs, so the police department is working with regional partners in order to reduce the number of such incidents. He said that police believe the offenders live in the city, travel to the suburbs and then return back to town.

The superintendent announced a series of steps being undertaken by the Chicago PD in order to address the recent spike in the crime.

He said that the rate of such incidents doubled in 2020 year over year from 2019 and said so far in 2021 there have been 144 reported carjackings.

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