Police Using 'Heat Lists' to Seek Out and Arrest Minor Offenders in Chicago

Chicago Police hope implementing "heat lists" will reduce city's high murder rate

The Chicago Police Department is hoping Yale University sociologist Andrew Papachristos's theory about “hot people” is correct. They are basing an entire new policing strategy on it.

The police department is implementing a strategy to arrest fugitives linked to people who have been killed, called the "heat list." Under the strategy people like Brandon Milton, who had a warrant issued for his arrest because he missed a court date for reckless conduct, become the main target of police.

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“They were stopped with a murder victim, or arrested with a murder victim — or victims — in the past two years,” Joseph Salemme, commander of the fugitive unit told the Chicago Sun Times. “Or they were two degrees of separation away from the victim or victims.”

Having already seen more murders this year than all of last year, no one at the CPD is in a position to say no to new ideas.

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The Sun Times also reported that Chicago’s overall murder rate is 14.5 deaths per 100,000 people, but jumps to 44.5 per 100,000 in the Harrison District on the West Side, one of the city’s highest-crime districts. For people on the "hot list" in that district, the murder rate jumps to 1,865 per 100,000, according to the police department.

So far, about 165 people with arrest warrants across the city have been placed on the heat list.

Since August, when the push began, the department has brought in 39 people on the list, including one suspected murderer.

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