Law requires Chicago gun offenders to register. They rarely do.

CHICAGO (WGN) — A Chicago law meant to help police track gun offenders is rarely used and even more rarely enforced, according to a new analysis by the city’s inspector general.

“CPD has no way of ascertaining the full universe of individuals with gun offenses who are required to register,” Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg concluded. 

The investigation further found communication, staffing, and a flawed notification system make the gun offender registry woefully incomplete.

“Even if CPD rectifies communication issues within the notification process, it will be unable to ensure that all qualified gun offenders are notified of their duty to register,” the IG concluded.

The inspector general’s report cites WGN Investigates reporting in 2023 that showed how difficult it was for people required to register to actually do so.    

“It’s frustrating,” Kenneth Baker said in 2023 as he waited outside CPD’s Criminal Registration Unit on the city’s South Side. “Each time they tell me to come back and come back.” 

Baker’s rap sheet included convictions for sex offenses, but despite waiting in line with others over several days he said he was unable to register. A sign on the door read: “Due to capacity limits and manpower shortages we are closed for the morning session.”

“Right now, CPD is not doing their part to let the registrants follow the law,” CPD’s former commander of the registration unit Patricia Casey told WGN Investigates in 2023. “They are short-staffed right now. They are down approximately half the number of persons they had several years ago, and registrations are growing.”

The inspector general’s report noted that CPD increased staffing in the registration unit following the WGN Investigates report. However, it noted that despite CPD policy to conduct routine residency verification and non-compliance checks, police are not actually doing so.

The IG also determined the Chicago Department of Law is declining to pursue registration violations to the full extent allowed and “rarely seeks penalties for violators.” 

Chicago police responded to the inspector general’s findings by saying it is reviewing staffing, policies and procedures while also implementing a new software program called “offenderwatch.”

Registration information for gun and sex offenders is used to populate the city’s online map and give residents awareness of potential threats. 

Days after WGN Investigates interviewed Kenneth Baker, Chicago police stopped him for riding his bicycle on a sidewalk. Officers then arrested him for failing to register as a sex offender, the very thing he was trying to do but couldn’t because the office was closed. 

“It’s so unjust,” said Adele Nicholas with nonprofit Illinois Voices for Reform told WGN Investigates in 2023. “People are often making choices between keeping their jobs or waiting in line all day to fill out this piece of paper. I’m sure that Mr. Baker is not alone.”

The ordinance, amended and adopted in 2013, was in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Chicago’s handgun ban. Former Mayor Richard M. Daley pushed through the first version with now imprisoned Ald. Edward Burke, declaring it would make the city safer. 

“An enhanced and comprehensive database of registered gun offenders will provide Chicago residents with the opportunity to alert themselves as to the presence of gun offenders in their own communities,” Burke said at the time.