WEST TOWN — A West Town alderperson is continuing to call on the city to open a new satellite police district to better serve the neighborhood, three months after voters approved a symbolic resolution demanding more police resources in the area.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) has pushed to relaunch the 13th District or open a satellite 12th (Near West) District station in the neighborhoodsince he ran for reelection last year.
The 13th District operated for years in the East Ukrainian Village section of West Town at 937 N. Wood St. —now home to a Cook County Sheriff’s Office division— before it wasclosed in 2012 under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration.
Villegas’ office collected signatures last year to launcha non-binding referendum during March’s primary electionasking some of his constituents if the city should reopen the district. It won approval from about 70 percent of neighbors who voted on the measure, according to election data.
Some West Town and Ukrainian Village neighbors have long been concerned they don’t receive adequate police attention because the 12th District, which covers parts of the neighborhood, is headquartered several miles south near Pilsen.
Villegas has said if it’s not possible for the city to reopen the 13th District, adding a satellite office somewhere in the northern part of the 12th District would allow officers to get to 911 calls more quickly, and spend more patrolling time the area.
But since the ballot measure passed this spring, Villegas said he hasn’t heard from police leaders or the Mayor’s Office about potentially reallocating police resources to the neighborhood. He hosted a press conference Thursday with about 50 neighbors urging immediate action.
“What we’ve said is, ‘Hey, if you can’t open up the 13th Police District, then you need to open up a satellite office so that way [officers] can deploy from a closer location to where they’re actually patrolling,” he said. “Whether it’s Lake Street, whether it’s Grand [Avenue], have a satellite office on the north end of the 12th District so that way police officers are visible.”
Thursday’s press conference comes as the 12th District as a whole continues to see a high number of robberies and burglaries.
The district, which stretches from Division Street in Wicker Park to Pilsen, reported 979 robberies in 2023. That’s up from 641 robberies in 2022 and 459 in 2019, according to city data.
Robberies in the areaare slightly up so far this year compared to 2023. The 12th District has reported 261 robberies this year as of June 2, compared to 255 in the same period last year. Citywide, robbery numbers are essentially flatso far compared to 2023, according to police data.
There have also been several high-profile reports this spring of neighbors in the Wicker Park and West Town area waiting hours for police to arrive after reporting a crime.
That includes a woman who waited four hours for officers to show up at her house after two men broke in last month, according to NBC5.
Police spokespeople did not return a request for comment Thursday.
Last year, Villegas and Alds. Daniel La Spata (1st) and Walter Burnett (27th), whose wards also include parts of West Town, sent a letter to Supt. Larry Snelling requesting a satellite police station be launched in the city-owned Goldblatt’s Building, 1615 W. Chicago Ave.
Villegas told Block Club in March the group met with Snelling this winter and the superintendent was receptive to the idea, although no specific locations or timeline for a satellite office were nailed down. Since then, Villegas hasn’t received any updates, he said.
“Now I have documentation to show this is something that community wants, however, they’ve gone radio silent,” Villegas said Thursday of the ballot resolution. “And so I hate to do this and put people on blast, but sometimes you have to.”
Johnson this spring said he was open to sitting down with proponents of adding the police district in West Town and a separate push on the Southwest Side, but he did not commit to a specific plan.
“Our approach is comprehensive, and policing is just one tool in the toolbox to address public safety,” Johnson said at a press conference at City Hall after the primary election.
In April, Snelling and Johnson launched what they called a multi-pronged plan to tackle robberies and carjackings across the city. That includes deploying “focus missions” to prevent the crimes and pursue suspects and continuing to use technology like license-plate readers and pod cameras to apprehend suspects.
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