Elmhurst Smash-And-Grabs Now Vs. 10 Years Ago

ELMHURST, IL – A decade ago, a smash-and-grab store burglary would likely have taken little staff time at the Elmhurst Police Department, the chief said Monday.

Such a crime would have taken place early in the morning, with the police not knowing about it until employees showed up, Chief Michael McLean told the City Council.

"There were no cameras to check. There were no license plate readers," he said. "The officer would take a simple report. There were no leads to follow up on. It didn't take a lot of staff time to do that."

Now, if a burglary suspect enters town, that person may likely be driving a stolen car, McLean said. So license plate readers would alert officers to the stolen car entering town.

If the driver fails to stop, officers can chase the person out of town, meaning no burglary happens.

But if suspects successfully enter Elmhurst and commit a smash-and-grab, McLean said, officers now have tools to find them.

"At 3 in the morning, we have a pretty small group of license plates in the area of that burglary to go check and see if these are our suspects," McLean said.

After a burglary, the detectives focus on that limited group and identify suspects.

"The technology we had years ago in many cases was simple, but the police department was dramatically less effective," McLean said.

With today's technology, he said, officers spend more hours solving crimes. That results in a "criminal justice positive," he said.

McLean gave that example after an alderman referred to a resident's letter asking why improvements in technology did not lead to lower police spending.

In his letter, resident Jim Colbert referred to license plate readers, drones and GPS darts.

"As Elmhurst taxpayers pay for a brand-new police station and all City Departments are being asked to reduce their budgets by 5%, members of the Elmhurst City Council should be asking this question: Where are the reductions in staffing with regards to force multiplier technology adoption?" he said.