Park Ridge police say crime rate is down, gather at Mariano’s after armed robberies there

Officers from four police departments gathered for roll call in Mariano’s parking lot in Park Ridge Friday to demonstrate support for the community after many residents were shaken by two separate armed robbery incidents in that very parking lot.

Some residents and aldermen have cited those incidents while expressing fears that crime is on the rise; in response, Police Chief Frank Kaminski noted figures show that crime actually dropped 3.6% from 2021 to 2022, and that 2022′s crime rate was the second-lowest in a decade.

During the roll call at the grocery store, in the 1900 block of South Cumberland, officers stood just across the street from the entrance to the I-90 expressway, and in both the March 10 and March 19 armed robberies, the suspects confronted shoppers exiting Mariano’s, displayed guns and then took wallets and phones from the victims before fleeing on the expressway.

Chicago police and Illinois State police apprehended the suspects behind the March 19 incident and a similar occurrence in Des Plaines, police said.

At the roll call, Chief Kaminski welcomed officers and officials from the Chicago Police Department, Cook County Sheriff’s Police and Des Plaines Police.

“It’s important that we’ve got our (law enforcement) partners here,” Kaminski said. “We want to show support to the community. We care about these incidents a great deal.

“We’re here for the community. When something happens, we take it very seriously.”

Chicago Police 16th District Commander Heather Daniel commented, “We definitely want to support our suburban neighbors. The partnership in the northwest side of Chicago area is fantastic. We communicate with each other and whenever we can support a partner agency, we want to do so.

“They’ve helped us in the past as well.”

Park Ridge Mayor Marty Maloney said that after City Council approved the purchase of Flock license-plate reading security cameras recently, the police department was talking to Mariano’s officials about deploying a camera somewhere outside the store.

Crime in Park Ridge decreased between 2021 and 2022, according to the Park Ridge Police Department’s annual report, but some elected officials are making the argument that lower numbers do not translate to a sense of safety.

The police department report states that the city’s index crime rate, or the prevalence of crime across the Park Ridge population in 2022, was 918.4. That is the second lowest rate the city has seen in the last 10 years: 2019′s rate was 816.4.

The report states that between 2021 and 2022, Park Ridge’s index crime rate dropped from 953 to 918.4, a 3.63% dip.

It saw one fewer criminal sexual assault than in 2021 and three fewer robberies, according to police department data.

The city had one homicide in 2022, creating a 100% jump in its homicide rate, and one more aggravated sexual assault than in 2021, accounting for a 14.3% bump.

Kaminski said residents should process those numbers in the context of Park Ridge’s small number of violent crimes.

“You have to look at numbers in the context they’re presented,” Kaminski said. “From 0 to 1, any death is tragic, but does that mean you’ve got a serious homicide problem?”

In 2021, Park Ridge saw 83 burglaries; in 2022, that rate dropped by almost 11% to 74. The city also experienced a small dip in thefts, from 237 in 2021 to 226 in 2022.

One category where the city saw a substantial jump was in car thefts, which leapt by 50% in 2022. There had been 18 vehicle thefts in 2021 and there were 27 last year, the report states.

Kaminski said the increase Park Ridge saw in thefts mirrored an upswing in that type of crime statewide.

“Most of [the thefts] were left unlocked with the key fobs in the cars,” he added.

Kaminski says residents who don’t secure their property leave themselves more vulnerable to property crimes, citing a recent spate of garage burglaries – “all 10 were left open,” he said. “Lock the doors. Secure your property.”

The city breaks its crime data into violent crimes — homicides, sexual assaults, robbery and aggravated assault or battery — and property crimes like burglary and theft, according to the report.

Violent crimes fell by 10.5% in 2022 compared to 2021 while property crimes fell by 3.3%, the report states.

In total, the city saw 327 property crimes, down from 338 the prior year, and 17 violent crimes, down from 19 the prior year, in 2022.

Police and criminal activity has been a touchy topic around the horseshoe at recent City Council meetings.

Aldermen have inquired about incidents like the recent pair of armed robberies and a rash of garage burglaries from February, occasionally getting heated in debates about whether crime really is down in the city.

Maloney

contended that while the police reports have been crowded for the first few months of 2023, “jumping to the conclusion that crime is permanently up for the year 2023 is premature.”

“It’s too early to determine that crime is up for the year when we’re only looking at two months in a calendar year,” he continued.

Kaminski concurred, saying “you’ve got to wait and see what the trends are.”

Maloney said he was prepared to be receptive to any further requests from city police should crime rates remain a concern.

“I think this council has proven that even with crime being down over the last 10 years that we are responsive to those needs,” he said. “but I want to make sure that I’m getting my direction from Chief that this is a systemic problem that you don’t see going away.”

Aldermen Rick Biagi, who represents the 6th Ward, and Charlie Melidosian, who represents the 5th Ward, were skeptical of Maloney’s argument.

Despite the numbers in the police annual report, Melidosian said, “Whatever the numbers are, they are, but that’s the perception,” Melidosian said. “I don’t like it.”

Ald. Mwende Lefler’s 7th Ward has been the center of some of the discussion about crime due to its location near the expressway. She attended the March 24 roll call and said it was a positive event.

Lefler said her sense of safety in the city has not changed since she moved there in 2015.

But, she said, it’s understandable that residents may be rattled by the high-profile incidents at Mariano’s or the intersection of Talcott and Cumberland.

“I do think that when you have alarming incidents, especially back to back and involving guns, whether or not crime is up or down, it still can still shake you up,” she said.