Chicago Lakefront Slaying: Migrant Arrested in Deadly Ambush of College Student

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Crime & Justice with Donna Rotunno
Episode: Chicago Lakefront Slaying: Migrant Arrested in Deadly Ambush of College Student
Date: March 25, 2026
Host: Donna Rotunno (Defense Attorney)
Guest: Eugene Roy (Retired Chief of Detectives, Chicago Police Department)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the shocking murder of Sheridan Gorman, a college student ambushed and killed on Chicago’s iconic lakefront. Host Donna Rotunno is joined by retired Chicago PD Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy for an unflinching look at the crime, its root causes, the city’s policing and political response, and the broader system failures—particularly regarding illegal immigration, diminished police morale, and deeply controversial justice reforms in Illinois. Together, they dissect the victim’s case, critique officials’ statements, and grapple with what current city policies mean for public safety.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Context and Emotional Impact

• Sheridan Gorman’s Death:

  • Described as an “unbelievable case about Sheridan Gorman, who was murdered on our beautiful lakefront” [01:00, Jean].
  • Both hosts have personal connections to Chicago’s neighborhoods, emphasizing the tragedy’s proximity and randomness.

• Personal Resonance:

  • Roy connects as a parent, noting that his own daughter attended Loyola (near the murder) [01:40].

    “As a father, I sit back and think this could have happened, too.” — Eugene Roy [01:41]

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2. The Shifting Landscape of Chicago Policing

• Declining Morale & Officer Exodus:

  • CPD staffing shrank from 12,000 to 10,000 in just three years [03:36].

  • Young, passionate officers are “leaving the city, the CPD, before they are even vested in their pension, and they're going to the suburbs” [04:33].

    “The people we need to keep … the younger, intelligent, motivated officers, they're leaving. That's a big blow to us.” — Eugene Roy [05:21]

• The New “Reactive” Approach:

  • Shift from proactive community policing to a mere call-response system due to public and political criticism.
  • Officers are hesitant to act assertively, knowing criminal accountability is low and support from leadership is lacking [05:30–06:45].

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3. System Failures & Repeat Offenders

• Cashless Bail, Electronic Monitoring, and Bond Violations:

  • The Illinois Safety Act eliminates cash bail, weakening consequences for repeat and violent offenders [06:45, 27:09].

  • Electronic monitoring is described as “deeply flawed, unreliable, and unpoliced,” with offenders not being tracked or held [07:31].

    “They would say that somebody has left their house and is now in Panama, literally … they weren't following up.” — Eugene Roy [07:58]

• Grim Case Study:

  • The tale of a 15-year-old, out on bond for weapons offenses, who shot a 7-year-old near the DNC site [08:15].

    “Those two police officers carried their child in their arms and doing CPR. Trying to save him. They're scarred for life too.” — Eugene Roy [09:40]

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4. Guns, Illegal Immigration, and Political Rhetoric

• Gun Control Ineffectiveness:

  • Despite having “the most strict gun laws in the country,” shootings persist [09:58].

• Acquisition of Firearms by Criminal Migrants:

  • Outrage at the lack of concern about how the accused (an undocumented migrant) obtained a firearm [10:10].

• Politician’s Controversial Comments:

  • Donna and Jean play and break down a clip from a Chicago Alderwoman, who suggests the shooting was a “wrong place, wrong time” incident and Thompson was possibly “startled” by the victim [11:01].

    “How does the 18-year-old guy, college student, startle the guy with the gun in the mask?” — Donna Rotunno [11:38]

    “We don’t victim shame. We don’t blame our victims for being victims. All this is … they’re attempting to deflect the blame onto the victim. That's outrageous.” — Eugene Roy [11:47]

• Victim Blaming & Lack of Leadership:

  • Hosts denounce attempts to attribute guilt to the victim or claim it was accidental [12:42].
  • Emphasize the need for politicians to unify and assure the community, not politicize or sidestep the tragedy [14:39–15:01].

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5. Government & Law Enforcement Response

• Governor’s Statement:

  • Governor J.B. Pritzker’s press comments (played at [15:12]) deflect blame to the federal government and lack of immigration reform, refusing to address Illinois’ sanctuary policies.

    “Their job is to say what they're going to do to fix it. … Their job is to apologize to the families. … And not only did he do none of that, but he says it's the job of federal government.” — Donna Rotunno [16:41]

• Hostile Policies Toward ICE:

  • Refusal by state and city to cooperate with ICE detainers, direct contradiction to the governor’s claims [16:48–17:44].

  • Roy calls out the hypocrisy of officials who campaign on blocking ICE, but later blame federal failures [18:00].

    “You can't have it both ways.” — Eugene Roy [19:24]

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6. Broader Impact: Safety, Enrollment, and Institutional Obligations

• Impact on Universities & Prospective Students:

  • Concerns that gun violence outbreaks deter families from considering Chicago colleges, with likely consequences for Loyola’s future enrollment [19:32–20:47].
  • The need for higher education leaders to acknowledge the safety crisis and partner sincerely with local police.

• The Illusion of “No Ongoing Threat”:

  • While the suspect’s arrest ends immediate danger, the broader threat persists due to unchanged policies and communal climate [21:25–21:35].

    “If we continue with the same policies we have in place, doesn't that threat remain?” — Donna Rotunno [21:25]

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7. Policy Explanations & Proposed Solutions

• Safety Act Clarification:

  • Jean clarifies the key policy change: no cash bail, with limited detention only for certain offenses, and its effect on ICE detainers [27:09–28:25].

• What Must Change:

  • Both hosts insist meaningful reform is needed to restore public safety.

    “We are not going to let people out on bond. We're going to change this Safety act and start holding violent people. We're going to … allow the sheriffs to tell ICE we have an illegal alien in jail here.” — Eugene Roy [26:32]

• Call for Leadership:

  • The repeated refrain: “Leaders lead.” Immediate, honest, and public responses are demanded from city officials and police leadership [23:11, 25:13].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Eugene Roy on Police Exodus:

  “The people we want to keep … they're leaving. That’s a big blow to us.” [05:21]

• On Victim Blaming:

  “We don’t victim shame. We don’t blame our victims for being victims.” [11:47]

• On Political Evasion:

  “You can't have it both ways.” [19:24]

• Donna Rotunno on Leadership:

  “Their job is to say what they’re going to do to fix it … provide potential solutions, and not only did he do none of that, but he says it's the job of the federal government.” [16:41]

• On Public Safety Moving Forward:

  “I would like to see it spawn some change here and create a situation where everybody’s safe and that we'll never have another Sheridan Gorman ever again.” — Jean [28:39]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction of the case & guests: [00:30–01:15]
• Personal & professional resonance: [01:39–02:35]
• Declining police morale/exodus: [03:36–05:21]
• Failures in bond/electronic monitoring: [06:45–08:15]
• Alderman comments & victim-blaming debate: [10:12–12:42]
• Governor’s statement & response: [15:12–16:48]
• Impact on universities/families: [19:32–20:47]
• Safety Act clarification & criticism: [27:09–28:25]
• Conclusion & calls for change: [28:39–29:14]

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Tone & Style

• Direct, urgent, and impassioned: The hosts speak as insiders and advocates, often expressing deep frustration and disappointment at leadership failures.
• No-nonsense, fact-driven but conversational: Both hosts push hard on politicians and policies, with gritty illustrations and real-life fallout.
• Deeply empathetic: Emphasizes the human toll on victims, police, and communities, not just policy abstractions.

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Summary

This episode of Crime & Justice with Donna Rotunno puts a personal, analytical, and hard-hitting spotlight on the murder of Sheridan Gorman. Through the lens of Chicago's policing and justice systems, Rotunno and Roy dissect the cumulative toll of policy failures, governmental finger-pointing, and demoralized law enforcement. The episode is a call to action for honest leadership, real accountability, and urgently needed reform to prevent future tragedies.

Transcript

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[Donna Rotuno]

This is crime and justice, and I'm Donna Rotuno. A young college student's life is cut

[Jean]

short in a deadly ambush.

[Eugene Roy]

We don't victim shame. We don't blame our victims for being victims.

[Donna Rotuno]

A grieving mother is now vowing to

[Jean]

get justice for her daughter.

[Donna Rotuno]

Joining me today is retired Chief of Detectives from the Chicago Police Department, Eugene Roy.

[Jean]

I want to talk about this unbelievable case about Sheridan Gorman, who was murdered on our beautiful lakefront in the city of Chicago. You being a retired Chicago police detective, me being a former Cook county prosecutor and defense attorney in Chicago. This is our city, our world, where we live. And watching something like this happen to a young girl in this promising stage of her life is not only horrific as a random act of violence, but it is made more horrific by the fact that it was unbelievably preventable.

[Donna Rotuno]

What do you say about what we've

[Jean]

seen happen in the last few days in the city regarding this awful death on the first.

[Eugene Roy]

First of all, I have to say it really resonates with me because my daughter is a graduate of Loyola. She went to college there. So as a father, I sit back and think this could have happened, too. So. But it was a different world back then, was a few years ago. What we've seen here is we've seen the perfect storm. It's a terrible tragedy. It's a needless tragedy. It's totally senseless. And unfortunately, instead of addressing the underlying problem of violence, illegal immigration, lax get out of jail free policies here in the state of Illinois, people have chosen, the politicians have chosen to turn it into a talking point campaign. It's really beyond the pale.

[Donna Rotuno]

It is.

[Jean]

And that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about this, to

[Donna Rotuno]

me, is twofold, really. One, the sense that this can even

[Jean]

happen in a city like ours, Number one, just the violence itself. And then number two, the reasons and the policies that got us here. So I think that there's.

[Donna Rotuno]

There's two parts to this conversation. And first of all, you know, as someone who is part of the Police department. In a time when our city respected the police, the people in charge supported the police. They backed up the police action. And there came a point where there was really a shift and the police became enemy number one.

[Eugene Roy]

And.

[Donna Rotuno]

And law enforcement was not backed up

[Jean]

by the mayor and the city council. And so what has that done to

[Donna Rotuno]

the morale of the police department and their willingness to want to act in these situations when the powers that be

[Jean]

are not supporting them? What does that do to a department?

[Eugene Roy]

Well, first of all, before we even talk about morale, we have to talk about the manpower levels. The Chicago Police Department is right now has approximately 10,000 officers. Three years ago, they had 12,000 officers. That's losing a significant chunk of your force.

[Donna Rotuno]

Sure.

[Eugene Roy]

So you can't do the job of 12,000 people with only 10,000 people.

[Jean]

As we see a TSA right now, when they don't have enough people coming

[Eugene Roy]

to work, then you take another. You look at it a little bit harder. People are retiring sooner. And what we're also seeing is that the younger officers, the ones that are living in the bungalow belt, sending their kids to private school, both mom and dad, are working, and they love their job, they love their city. But the police are being demonized. They're being blamed for everything. The younger officers are demoralized. And one of the most concerning trends I see is that these young officers are saying, this isn't safe. I want to be the police. I love being the police. I want to protect my community, but my community doesn't love me. My city doesn't love me. My mayor doesn't love me. My governor doesn't love me. What they're doing is they. They are leaving the city, the cpd, before they are even vested in their pension, and they're going to the suburbs. And the suburban chiefs are just more than happy because they're getting experienced, streetwise officers. So what we're seeing is the people we want to keep, the people we need to keep as police officers, the younger, intelligent, motivated officers, they're weaving. That's a big blow to us.

[Donna Rotuno]

Sure.

[Eugene Roy]

Now, the officers that are left, they're very reluctant to engage in proactive policing. When I came on the job, you know, you were working a B car, and you were a geographic piece of land, and you were responsible for what happened on that. And your watch commander, your supervisor, would say, well, we have an uptick in auto theft, so please watch out for cars that appear to be stolen, what have you, go out and stop cars that are committing traffic violations. Now, they don't want that. They don't want people going out and being aggressive officers acting within the framework of the Constitution. They do not want that assertive, aggressive police presence. They, they want the police to just be call takers responding to calls. And that again, feeds into that morale problem. And it also emboldens the criminal element because they know their chances of getting stopped by the police are not what they were 2, 3, 5, 10 years ago. They're a lot bolder.

[Donna Rotuno]

And if they are stopped, they're stopped and detained for a period of time and then the odds of them being held are not great.

[Eugene Roy]

Even if they're arrested. Even if they're arrested, in some cases, felonies under the Safety act with this cashless bail, people who have committed felonies, even if they are repeat felons, they're released from literally a get out of jail free card. And what message does that send to the, to the crime, to the criminals and to the community?

[Donna Rotuno]

Well, and we saw in that case where the young woman was set on fire on the L on the train. The guy who set her on fire was on an electronic home monitoring bracelet. Shouldn't have even been out of the house. And he's setting her on fire on a train. So even when we put things in place where people are supposed to be monitored, that's failing.

[Eugene Roy]

Let's talk about that for a minute. The problem with the electronic monitoring system is the electronic monitoring was done by the county and all of it was transferred over to the office of the chief judge with the time was Tim Evans. The system didn't work. I know of people who worked in that office. They would get false readings. They would say that somebody has left their house and is now in Panama, literally.

[Donna Rotuno]

Right.

[Eugene Roy]

You know, and just, they weren't, they weren't following up. They weren't pursuing the bond violators. Okay, you need to pursue the bond violator for somebody. It's a relatively minor shoplifting offense. No. Somebody who's got a gun and this, they're out on bail for their second or third gun offense or an armed robbery. Yeah. You need to track those people down if they're violating the terms of their bond and bring them back into jail and hold them there. Particularly egregious case is there was two cases in 20, 20, 24, just out, just around the time of the Democratic National Convention. First of all, there was a young lad that was out playing near his home at Jackson and Oakley, blocks away from the site of the DNC. Kid comes out, was a 15 year old. He's got an AR15 rifle. He starts shooting and he hits a 7 year old kid. There was a little problem with the fire ambulances that day. They were tied up. There were a lot of calls. Two police officers carried that child, put him into their squad car and drove him directly to STR and got him in there as fast as they could. But it was a losing battle. They waited to hear. And the surgeon came out and told them, we tried, we lost him. Turns out that the offender who shot him had been violating his juvenile. Juvenile bond or there's no bond for juveniles, right, but the terms of his release from juvenile detention for having a weapon. And now he goes and kills some. He kills somebody, a young kid, you know, the family's loss. And then those two police officers carried their child in their arms and doing cpr. Trying to say they're scarred for life

[Donna Rotuno]

too, you know, they really are.

[Jean]

And when we think about guns, right, we think about guns in the city of Chicago. And the city of Chicago has the most strict gun laws in the country. And you know, we, we see how that's working for Chicago.

[Donna Rotuno]

But let's think about what happened on

[Jean]

the lake to Sheridan Gorman.

[Donna Rotuno]

She shot with a gun. And no, there's been no outrage from anyone about how this illegal immigrant got this gun. Where are all the people that are yelling and screaming about ICE agents with their guns? Where are they to say, how did this illegal not only stay in the country but get his gun? And then on top of it, we have an alder woman from Chicago coming on a video from her car, which I have no idea why she felt the need to put her opinion out into the world when she, she did, but nonetheless she did, so it's fair game for us to talk about it. And she comes out and says that what happened to this girl may have been caused because the perpetrator was surprised or stunned. Let's listen to what she says and

[Jean]

then let's talk about it.

[Alderwoman]

It seems she might have that as they were just out, you know, people go out to the beach all the time, right? And they go out on the pier, they walk around so that the kids were out doing normal, normal things people do in the neighborhood. And it sounds like this might have been a wrong place, wrong time, running into a person who had a gun. They might have startled this person at the end of the pier unintentionally.

[Donna Rotuno]

I mean, what is she talking about? She may have startled the guy with the gun, who incidentally in the police report says, and from the witness accounts says was wearing a mask. And from the video we see that

[Jean]

he was wearing the mask.

[Donna Rotuno]

How does the 18 year old guy, college student, startle the guy with the

[Jean]

gun in the mask?

[Eugene Roy]

She didn't.

[Donna Rotuno]

Of course not.

[Eugene Roy]

What we have here is something that you and I learned about a long time ago when I was young officer. You were young state's attorney. We don't victim shame. We don't blame our victims for being victims. All this is, is they know she's a progressive, she follows the progressive playbook. They know that this is a loser for them on many several facets. So what they trying to do here is this victim shaming and they're deflecting. They're attempting to deflect the blame onto the victim. That's outrageous. You don't do that. And it also shows poor judgment on her part. All she had to do was say the right things. She didn't need to go into this long winded political discussion. So it makes you question her judgment as an elected official.

[Donna Rotuno]

Yeah, it really does.

[Eugene Roy]

Being so outrageous.

[Donna Rotuno]

Yeah, it really does. And then not only was this girl

[Jean]

shot with the guy in the mask

[Donna Rotuno]

and the gun, but she was shot in the back as she was attempting to flee. So they saw this guy with a gun. So I mean, the fact that it is so irresponsible for, for this Alder

[Jean]

woman to come out and make this

[Donna Rotuno]

statement, and I would hope that she

[Jean]

did not know all of those facts before she made that statement because if she did, it makes it even worse. But the fact that this can happen. And as you said, you know, Loyola,

[Donna Rotuno]

that's Rogers park, that is a beautiful area of the city. It is a place where so many young people live because of the university. Educators live there, families live there. It's on the lake. It's between the city and Northwestern. I mean, this is not an area of the city where you should be worried about being shot when you're walking out with your friends, when you didn't provoke it in any way. This was not a situation where this

[Jean]

person had to defend himself.

[Donna Rotuno]

This was this. And it's, it's not random in the

[Jean]

sense that it was an intentional act, but it's random in the sense that this poor girl has to be the target.

[Eugene Roy]

Well, a couple things. First of all, it tells me that the older woman does not have an effective working relationship.

[Jean]

Yes.

[Eugene Roy]

The Chicago Police Department. And does not have an effective working relationship with Loyola University. If she had an effective working relationship with the police department, she would have been briefed by the superintendent. Or one of his designees, the detective commander or the district commander. And she would have been up to date on the information and probably could have prevented her faux pas. Well, it's beyond a faux paw or just ridiculous statement. So you know, that makes me question her professional credentials first of all. And to go beyond it all this is again, it's victim shaming, it's deflection.

[Donna Rotuno]

Well, and too, if we look at,

[Jean]

you know, the other elected officials in the state, what happens when these horrible things happen? Right? We go to the elected officials, we go to the governor, we go to the mayor, we ask for statements. Obviously your job in that position is to bring a community, community together. It's to condemn this unbelievable act.

[Donna Rotuno]

And their job is to say what they're going to do to fix it. And what do we have from our

[Jean]

governor in his comments today? Let's listen to what he says and then we'll talk about those.

[Governor]

I agree there have been real failures. Those failures of course extend beyond the borders of Illinois. That's their national failures. A failure to have comprehensive immigration reform. A failure of the President to follow his own edict, to go after the worst of the worst. And in my view, we have a lot of work that we need to continue to do. But it is the job of the federal government to go after immigration enforcement. And it is the job of our local and state law enforcement to prosecute or to catch violent criminals and prosecute them.

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[Jean]

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[Donna Rotuno]

Okay, first of all, not one press

[Jean]

person pushed him on the sanctuary city, sanctuary state status. That that's number one. So he was able to say whatever he wanted.

[Donna Rotuno]

And what does he do?

[Jean]

He blames the federal government.

[Donna Rotuno]

And in these situations it is the job of our elected officials to not

[Jean]

only make commentary about these horrific things

[Donna Rotuno]

that happen, but their job is to

[Jean]

apologize to the families.

[Donna Rotuno]

Talk about how horrible this is, talk about how they're going to unify the community because of it. And then provide potential solutions. And not only did he do none of that, but he says it's the job of the federal government and for the president to, you know, maintain his own edict and get the worst of the worst out of here. We. When your state has done everything it can do to stop him from doing that. They have not allowed ICE into the jails to take out anybody that has detainers. They have not allowed ICE into the jail to take out anybody who is an illegal, who has committed a crime. They have. They have stopped ICE at every turn. You have the mayor coming out and saying, we're not going to allow ICE agents on our lakefront or in our parks. And so it is unbelievable to me for him to make these comments when everything they're doing is pushing back against the idea that we need to get

[Jean]

the worst of the worst out of here. What do you say about this?

[Eugene Roy]

Comments of the governor are rather rich, as they say, for him to make that statement. First of all, as you point out, the job of a leader, whether it's the governor, the mayor, or even times I had as a supervisor and a chief in the police department, tragedies happen. You comfort your people, you reassure them, you lead them forward, and you ensure that honor and respect is accorded to those that have fallen. Both the governor and the mayor have failed miserably on that. As far as the media not asking the right questions, the media here in Chicago, it's become progressive. They are merely scribes for the progressive movement here in Illinois. I don't expect any serious questions out of them because they all know. They all know, and the governor even knows. And finally, for him to blame all of this on the federal government, as you pointed out so eloquently, he's fought ICE at every step. One particular thing that's really galling is just a couple of weeks ago or last week, his lieutenant governor was running for the Senate position in the Democratic primary. One of her campaign ads was, I'm going to stop ice. And she's got a poster with a picture of the president on it, and she throws it into a fire. And then this happens. I mean, so what is it? Is it A or Z? You can't have it both ways.

[Jean]

That's right.

[Eugene Roy]

There's a. There's a. Gotta be a middle ground somewhere.

[Donna Rotuno]

Well, you would feel like this is the.

[Jean]

Should be a turning point, right?

[Donna Rotuno]

This should be a turning point at a point when college applications are in and college acceptance letters are going out and parents all across the country are determining where they're going to send their children to college. And do you think with this happening in the news right now, this is a great time for, for Chicago schools to be hoping that their new enrollees want to come to Chicago?

[Eugene Roy]

They're rather tone deaf. The mayor, especially the mayor, because this happened in Chicago, for the mayor to not address this and bring out that leadership element and comfort people and attempt to reassure them and to work with the, the staff, the administration of Loyola. I mean, look at the rich history that school has in the city of Chicago. They're, they're missing all the key points that they should be hitting and I very frankly expect that the number of enrollments at Loyola are going to drop. Yes, I think lose both current students and I think that a lot of people that they sent out acceptance letters to are just going to say thanks, but no thanks.

[Donna Rotuno]

Yeah, I agree with you. And I hope that the school comes out too and talks about this. And I hope the school takes a position on the fact that their job is to keep their students safe. And the only way they're able to do that is if they have a good partnership with Chicago Police, with the mayor. I think they need to take a stand because the only way these things change is if there's enough people who rise up and say we're not going to accept this.

[Jean]

And I just, the school has come

[Donna Rotuno]

out and said that there is not

[Jean]

an ongoing, ongoing threat because of course the person who killed Sheridan was arrested, or at least alleged to have killed Sheridan was arrested.

[Donna Rotuno]

So okay, that's fine, there's not a threat from that person. But if we continue with the same policies we have in place, doesn't that threat remain?

[Eugene Roy]

The thing that they're missing there is, there's still a climate that allows this sort of thing to happen. This offender was living in a multi unit building. You can't tell me that he was the only illegal alien who was there. And I would suspect that to some extent the people who are living there, who are illegals are being supported by city government, the aldermen, and possibly even by other agencies and institutions such as Loyola itself, as well as the, the Catholic Archdiocese here.

[Donna Rotuno]

And I know that we'll know more

[Jean]

as time goes on and the discovery in this case becomes more public and, and we see what, what happens. And I'm sure at some point we will hear from the state's attorney on this. And, and frankly, I, I think we should have heard from the state's attorney already. I know that the state's attorney in place now is definitely more pro police and. And prosecuting cases than Kim Fox. That was her predecessor. But I do think that at some point it would really be incumbent upon that office for her. Talk about how seriously they are going to treat this and the fact that they are going to try to push law enforcement to work together and remove people from this city that should not be here.

[Eugene Roy]

One thing I'll say in defense of the state's attorney is she's under enormous pressure from the anti police litigation bar in Chicago to start prosecuting federal agents who are involved in immigration operations.

[Donna Rotuno]

Oh, she's doing it already, Jean, because I'm representing one of them.

[Eugene Roy]

You know, she's walked. She's walking a fine line, too. Yes, I think she'll do the right thing. But again, leaders lead, and they don't wait for a call from somebody to say, hey, you need to get out there and lead. We need to get in front of this right now. By this time, there should have already been a significant press conference, should have been the governor, the mayor, the state's attorney, and talk about the issues that we've discussed here. The first thing is, what are we doing to ensure that this doesn't happen again? To minimize the chances of this happening again. That's what people want to hear. People want to be reassured. Same as when we suffer a loss in our personal life. We want to be reassured that everything is going to be well. The community needs that. The student population, the faculty there, they all need that. Come on, let's see some leaders here in Chicago.

[Donna Rotuno]

Do you think that at some point the superintendent of police can say, look, I know that he risks losing his job if he goes against the powers that be, but at the same time, isn't there a point where he can come out and say, look, our job is to protect.

[Jean]

Right. Right on the side of our cars

[Donna Rotuno]

and brazen blue are the words we serve and protect. And that's our job. And so even though I'm short staffed, even though we're going to do everything

[Jean]

we can do to assist law enforcement in making sure that we keep this city as safe as possible. And I think that if that statement came out, I think maybe the people

[Donna Rotuno]

in the city would start to feel

[Jean]

like, okay, the police are pushing back against this, and you and I know that they have pushed back in their own ways, but I think maybe a more public statement about the fact that

[Donna Rotuno]

they need more help and they're going

[Jean]

to get out there and do everything that they can do might make a difference right now.

[Eugene Roy]

I'M certainly not going to tell the superintendent what he needs to do and how he needs to handle this. But again, I go back to leaders lead. There's ways that, you know, you don't have to be strident. You can be subtle. Yeah. But I agree, you need to be there. And these are the times to try men's souls.

[Donna Rotuno]

And is there a certain, and I

[Jean]

don't know this answer. That's why I'm asking, is there a

[Donna Rotuno]

certain unit of the police department that

[Jean]

is deployed to the lakefront or is that different districts within the police department that handle their area of the lakefront during the summertime?

[Eugene Roy]

There used to be a team called the summer Mobile force, and it was people that were drafted from the various districts across the city. And their whole mission was to patrol the lakefront and adjacent areas during the high, during the afternoon, the high crime hours. I don't know. You know what? Again, that was when they had 2,000 more police officers. I don't know if that's going to be back in place again this year. Certainly be a good idea. But, you know, that's, that's putting a band aid.

[Jean]

Sure.

[Eugene Roy]

On somebody that's got an ulcer or cancer. You know, they're only going to do so much. It takes a comprehensive program. We are not going to tolerate this again. We are not going to let people out on bond. We're going to change this Safety act and start holding violent people. We're going to change our laws and allow the sheriffs to tell ICE we have an illegal alien in jail here. Give us a detainer. When his criminal case is closed, we will hand them over to you.

[Donna Rotuno]

And just so the listeners and the

[Jean]

viewers know, the Safety act was something passed in the state of Illinois. And the most significant portion, there's a lot of things in the Safety act, but the most significant portion was a change that happened in 2023, and it was like October or November of 2023, stating that there is no more cash bail in Illinois. So basically what that means is if you get arrested for a crime, you are either kept in custody or you are released with conditions. Some of those conditions are the electronic monitoring we were talking about that obviously failed to the girl on the train

[Donna Rotuno]

who is set on fire.

[Jean]

But there are conditions that can be put in place. There are issues with that. But the fact that there is no more cash bail, the fact that there are certain crimes that are not automatically, you know, people are kept in custody, especially if they are repeat offenders. It used to be that if you violated your bond. You were not getting a bond. You know, those days are now. Are now over. So that's. That's really what that does. And it also has changed the way the ICE detainers are handled within the facilities. Because when I was a prosecutor, they would lodge an ICE detainer when someone was arrested and went to bond court back in the day. And ICE would come and pick you up at the jail doors, and they're not doing that anymore.

[Eugene Roy]

It's common sense. It's good policy. But we've got people that are using government for political purposes rather than for good policy, protection, law and order.

[Jean]

I definitely do not want to see this lovely girl from Loyola's death politicized. But at the same time, I would like to see it spawn some change here and create a situation where everybody's safe and that we'll never have another Sheridan Gorman ever again. Because this cannot happen. Cannot happen to our young people. And our politicians and our lawmakers need to do something to. To ensure that the likelihood of this happening goes down. And that's not happening as of today, right?

[Eugene Roy]

Exactly. You've hit all the high points.

[Jean]

Well, I cannot thank you enough, Jean. Your expertise is just really invaluable to us today to talk about this, and I would love to have you back again sometime.

[Eugene Roy]

Be my pleasure.

[Donna Rotuno]

Thank you, Gene. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Crime and Justice. I'm Donna Rotuno. Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget, we want to hear from you. Send us your thoughts and questions.

[Jean]

Thanks for listening.

[Timberland Narrator]

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