Arrests and Charges

Lake County has 43 separate law enforcement agencies that serve its residents. It is important to be aware of who we are arresting, when we are arresting them, and why they are being admitted to the jail in order to identify potential biases if they exist.

The Illinois State Police reported that there have been 65,477 custodial arrests between 2015 and 2021 in Lake County. Overall, the number of yearly custodial arrests have decreased by 57% during that time span. The change in the racial breakdown over that time is as follows:

2015-2021 Change in Racial Breakdown of Arrests

White: 52.4% 🡇 41.6%

Black: 29.7% 🡅 31.8%

Hispanic/Latino: 13.2% 🡅 23.2%

Other/Unknown: 4.7% 🡇 3.4%

Non-White: 47.6% 🡅 58.4%

Jail admissions for White and Black defendants have consistently gone down year over year since 2013. Conversely, admissions of Hispanic or Latino defendants steadily rose until a health crisis required decision makers to change the practice of who was remanded and reduce the overall jail population.

Hispanic or Latino admissions rose 78% between 2013 and 2019. The data shows that while overall admissions have dropped considerably during the Covid-19 health crisis, admissions of White defendants dropped 42% while only 29% for Black defendants and 38.6% for Hispanic or Latino defendants.

Jail admissions in recent years were driven by defendants whose most serious charge was domestic violence, DUI, or possessing controlled substances. Before the Covid-19 era, admissions for most of the top 10 charge types had declined since 2016. Retail Theft being the only charge with an increase in admissions.