Crime has risen to record levels in the US and Chicago, and suburban families are experiencing frightening increases of crime in our once-peaceful communities.

American families shouldn’t have to live in fear. Yet that’s what’s happening. People aren’t going downtown to see their favorite sports team play or eat at a restaurant. Suburban drivers are forced to seek out busy and well-lit gas stations so their vehicle isn’t stolen while they’re pumping gas. Parents aren’t letting their children ride their bikes through the neighborhood. Crime has become a part of our daily lives.

Why is this happening? Because politicians like Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx are letting violent criminals run free. Through progressive policies like defunding the police and no cash bail, they’re more interested in protecting criminals than victims and law-abiding citizens.

85% of the criminals we arrest in Orland Park are previous felons and/or are out on bail, and nearly every single one of them comes from Cook County. You ask the average person what will happen if you let a career criminal with a long history of violent crime back onto the streets, they’ll tell you it’s obvious—they’ll commit another violent crime. This isn’t rocket science.

In Orland Park, we’re fighting back so we can keep our families safe and neighborhoods secure. We’ve reduced crime to the lowest rate in 27 years. With the lowest violent crime rate of cities over 50,000 in Illinois, Orland Park was rated the safest city in Illinois in 2020 and the 8^th safest small city in the United States in 2021—despite being mostly in Cook County.

We’ve achieved this through a common sense approach that holds criminals accountable for their actions. We work collaboratively as a community, with residents and businesses working directly with our outstanding police department. We hire the best of the best, then hold them accountable by taking every complaint seriously and always striving to be better. We invest heavily in investigations so we produce so much evidence the state’s attorney has no choice but to prosecute criminals, and when needed we take cases to the feds to get violent criminals off the streets. We utilize modern technology and fund programs that have been proven to work. We actively work to rehabilitate non-violent criminals and we hired mental health professionals to assist the mentally ill, which has decreased committals by 35% and saved lives.

Criminals know if they commit a crime in Orland Park, they will be caught and they will face consequences. Our police recently hauled in a group of armed robbers who were smugly laughing because they assumed they’d get a free pass. Their tune immediately changed once they realized they committed the crime in Orland Park on the Will County side. Just a few months ago, the FBI and US Attorney’s office thanked Orland Park for our help in putting a violent felon and drug trafficker behind bars that Kim Foxx had refused to charge.

This work is personal for me. When I served in the Air Force, including three tours in Iraq, I didn’t put my life on the line to defend our country so families would feel unsafe in their homes. It’s time to do away with the political agendas and focus on keeping Americans safe.