In a long term trend, arrests in Illinois and specifically in the Chicago area are continuing to drop. 

We’ve completed a review of publicly available data, and the picture is disturbing.

Total DUI arrests by the Illinois State Police went from 10,734 in 2010 to 5,619 in 2016. Chicago Police DUI arrests dropped from 3,695 in 2010 down to 2,592 in 2016. The data isn’t available yet, but we believe those numbers dipped further in 2017 as well. 
Lest one think for a moment “DUI is cured!” or “thank goodness for Uber!”, here are the totals for all Chicago Police Department arrests for criminal offenses (which includes DUI among other arrests for misdemeanor and felony offenses) Chicago Police for the same years: 167,541 in 2010 vs 85,493 in 2016.

Here is a sampling of other DUI arrest data for various police departments in Cook, Lake and DuPage counties that we found for the same period:

  • Lake County Sheriff: 515 in 2010 vs 311 in 2016
  • Cook County Sheriff: 515 in 2010 vs 221 in 2016
  • Chicago Police: 3,695 in 2010 vs 2,592 in 2016
  • Naperville Police: 671 in 2010 vs 312 in 2016
  • Skokie Police: 248 in 2010 vs 105 in 2016
  • Niles Police: 232 in 2010 vs 79 in 2016
  • Des Plaines Police: 144 in 2010 vs 48 in 2016
  • Arlington Heights Police: 205 in 2010 vs 128 in 2016
  • Schaumburg Police: 253 in 2010 vs 135 in 2016
  • Waukegan Police: 390 in 2010 vs 128 in 2016
  • Palatine Police: 256 in 2010 vs 134 in 2016

There certainly are some municipal police departments that showed some consistency or even increases in enforcement, such as Cicero, Carol Stream, Lombard or Hanover Park, but the overall trend clearly shows this is an enforcement issue, not evidence of an improved society. 

Let us know what you think in the comments.