Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is defending claims that she’s not tough on crime after it was revealed that her office dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases during her tenure from November 2019.
Chicago Tribune examined data that shows that Foxx’s office dropped all charges in 29.9 percent of felony cases in her first three years as Cook County state’s attorney.
The office of her predecessor, former prosecutor Anita Alvarez’s last three years in office compared, was at a drop rate of around 19.4.
Foxx says she’s not in the business of comparing herself to others.
“It is always eye-opening to be able to look at our own data and compare it to my predecessor’s past,” she told the Tribune.
“I can’t reconcile what her decision-making was, and how they chose to (dismiss) cases in the past. But I will say that this administration has been clear that our focus would be on violent crime and making sure that our resources and attention would go to addressing violent crime.”
Following the recent lootings in Chicago, Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, called on Foxx and the Cook County courts to “put your best people on this.” She used the opportunity to reference Foxx’s low prosecution rate.
“These people need to be held accountable and not cycled through the system,” Lightfoot said.
Foxx refuses to accept the blame.
“The notion that people believe they are somehow empowered because people weren’t prosecuted for looting back in the wake of the unrest beginning is simply not true. Those cases are coming to court now,” Foxx said.
