JOLIET — Wednesday night’s Joliet Police Department public safety forum at the Bicentennial Park was not only to let everyone know that none of the 15 Des Plaines River deaths, in recent years, has been connected to foul play. Police Chief Bill Evans also shared his agency’s crime statistics, and the statistics are showing that violent crime continues to decline throughout the city of Joliet.
“Now, you may ask, what does the situation look like statistically as far as violent crime to this point in 2024,” Evans remarked at one point during his presentation. “In 2023, the Joliet Police Department responded to over 89,000 calls for service. This last year, we’ve had 10 homicides. The detectives boast a clearance rate of over 80 percent for the second year running. I also like to point out that the national average for homicide clearances is between 47 percent and 52 percent. And I also want to point out that we had a very tragic situation in January where we had seven deceased people. So seven of the incidents, seven of those homicides, were all part of one particular incident. And now for some stats that I think you’ll be pleased with:
These loaded guns will never be used to commit a murder now that Joliet police have taken these weapons off the city’s streets and away from the community’s neighborhoods.
Find out what's happening in Jolietwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“I also think that it’s important to see what the city of Joliet is doing to combat crime and improve the health of our city,” Evans explained. “Within the last 18 months, the department has invested in another 30 FLOCK (license plate reader) cameras and over a dozen Genetec cameras to help cover the entire city, bringing our total camera inventory to nearly 100 cameras on the streets of Joliet, including eight cameras that are strategically placed and positioned on the riverfront, with another four expected to go up soon.”
Evans continued his message, by letting everyone know: “The city will be investing in a dozen signs to post help line information for those that are in distress or those that are having mental health episodes. Several of these signs will be placed along the riverfront.”
Find out what's happening in Jolietwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Joliet chief’s went on to say, “I’m sure, every once in a while, the taxpayers wonder what they’re getting on return for their investment … we’ve re-outfitted the S.O.S. squad (commonly known as the SWAT team) with updated technology and tactical equipment. You may ask why this is important? Because, at that crystal moment when things go really bad in the city of Joliet, an active shooter, a hostage barricade situation, that is the group we will be calling out. And I have to make sure that they have the best equipment, they are the best trained, and they are on point to handle such a situation. So we invested a lot of money in them in the last 18 months.”
Of note, Joliet police have added 55 new squad cars “to replace the very outdated fleet of police vehicles that we had. Now I know that about two years ago, you saw what we were driving around on the streets. Even the bad guys felt bad for us,” Evans joked. “So, we got 55 new cars in. The staff worked tremendously hard to get this rolling and we’re going to get another 15 or 18 next year. We can’t help you out if we can’t get to you, right? … We’re pleased to have the 55 in.”
Evans said his agency has invested more than $200,000 in specialized training at the Joliet Police Department.
“We’re very pro training here at the Joliet Police Department. We’ve outfitted our entire workforce with new, state of the art, body cameras, even beyond what the state mandates us to do. We’ve ordered each officer a new Motorola radio, replacing the previous model that was 10 years old, still working, but not as effective.”
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.