CHICAGO – If you text and drive in Chicago, worry about crashing. But don't worry too much about getting ticketed. The Chicago police appear to have all but given up enforcing a city ordinance against distracted driving.
The number of municipal tickets issued by Chicago police to drivers using their mobile devices has plummeted in the past three years, to 186 in 2016 from 25,884 in 2015 and 45,594 in 2014, according to statistics from the department. Just 24 were issued through April 16 of this year.
"It's almost like they've completely abdicated any responsibility on this issue," said Deborah Hersman, CEO of the National Safety Council, a nonprofit.
Hersman said the drop in enforcement in Chicago is part of a national trend, but she has seen nothing like the enforcement drop in Chicago anywhere else in the country.
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that in 2015, Chicago police amended the cellphone citation policy to conform to a change in state law that mandated that cellphone violations follow the same process as other traffic violations. This means they would have to go to traffic court and require the presence of the citing officer to be upheld, requiring more police time. Previously, the municipal citations could be upheld before an administrative law judge without the citing officer being present.
Another police spokesman, Frank Giancamilli, said police are working with other city agencies on a plan, dubbed Vision Zero, to increase awareness and enforcement to eliminate distracted driving. The city plans to release its plan, part of an international effort to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries, in the next few weeks, said Transportation Department spokesman Mike Claffey.
Alderman Edward Burke, who along with Alderman Anthony Beale called for a police crackdown on distracted driving last month, called the statistics "troubling." He obtained the data from police and shared it with the Chicago Tribune and Hersman,
"Not only are we a sanctuary city for immigrants, we're a sanctuary city for distracted driving," said Burke, a former police officer who sponsored the ordinance banning driving while using a mobile device in 2008. "You can imagine how disappointed I was when I learned this whole program is falling apart."
