Last month, the Chicago City Council and the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to pass resolutions that initiate the city of Chicago-Cook County Violence Against Women Task Force. I was honored to sponsor the legislation along with my partner in this effort, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller. 

The week of the final vote marked the seven-year anniversary of the tragic mass shooting at Mercy Hospital, where multiple people were killed by a serial domestic abuser. Chicago police Officer Samuel Jimenez, Dr. Tamara O’Neal and Dayna Less were murdered by a madman with a long history of violent behavior and threats toward women. The gunman somehow had a valid firearm owner’s identification card, a concealed carry permit and a government job.  

The communication between government systems failed, and those patterns of cases “falling through the cracks” persist today. These failures put the lives of our most vulnerable residents at risk, as well as our first responders, those in our workplaces and all of our communities. 

During the recent hearing on the task force, a message was shared from Laterria Smith, mother of Jayden Perkins. Jayden was an 11-year-old who lost his life last year protecting his pregnant mother and unborn sister from her violent abuser.  

“I thought I was doing everything right to protect myself and my family. I cried out multiple times to law enforcement to try and help. I was denied an order of protection. I was offered no help at the courthouse, and I left feeling helpless. I was not notified when my abuser was up for parole or when he was released. … The system failed. My son was murdered in his own home, where he was supposed to feel safe trying to protect me,” Smith said.   

Perkins was murdered six years after the tragic shootings at Mercy Hospital, yet the systemic failures were still clearly evident. 

In Chicago, as overall violent crimes are decreasing, in domestic cases, the number of killings of women and their children has continued to rise, year after year.

According to the National Violent Death Reporting System, as noted recently by the Tribune Editorial Board, Illinois’ per-capita rate of deaths caused by a spouse or intimate partner — 0.49% — exceeded the combined rate of the states of New York and California. 

A presentation to the City Council by Chicago77 Charities shared these data points from the Violence Reduction Dashboard and the Office of the Inspector General:

• Domestic-related fatal shootings are up 52.9% this year, and all 50 wards have experienced domestic-related violent crimes. 
• Members of the Chicago Police Department are dispatched on domestic-related 911 calls an average of 335 per day, equating to 26% of all Priority Level 1 calls being domestic-related as of Oct. 31.
• Of the victimizations in fatal and nonfatal shootings, 73% are Black and 18% are Hispanic, meaning a combined 91% are minorities.  

Over the last few months, I have been hearing from survivors of violence from all ethnicities, cultures, genders and identities. The horrors that they have experienced have only been exacerbated by their struggles — emotionally and financially — trying to navigate the fractured systems. They all share one selfless goal that has driven them to advocate for change: to fix the process for the next person, the next mother and the next child. To stop the suffering. 

Now it is time for government leaders to answer their calls for action. Currently, there is not a structure to provide oversight or to mandate data reporting. This is due to the statutory responsibilities and court processes falling on the offices of independently elected officials from all levels of government.  

In the vast majority of cases, a victim must be harmed or murdered for an arrest to occur.  

Our remarkable Cook County state’s attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke, and her team have done monumental work to improve prosecutions in domestic cases in the criminal court system. However, assistant state’s attorneys handle criminal cases and are not assigned to the civil court system, where most orders of protection and other domestic cases proceed. CPD also does not have access to records or cases from civil courts, drastically limiting the ability of Superintendent Larry Snelling to offer much assistance. 

In fact, the entire Cook County court system is still not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and most courtrooms do not have court reporters or recordings to provide transcripts. The Illinois State Police manage the database for law enforcement that serves as a repository for orders of protection records, which is also not subject to FOIA. These carve-outs in Illinois law have entirely prevented transparency and accountability. 

We can and must do better. 

The Violence Against Women Task Force has commenced, which will require government leaders to work together over the next six months to fix the broken systems. The survivors’ voices will continue to be incorporated in every conversation, and their input will save lives. 

Together, we will work diligently on identifying solutions to better protect all residents of Chicago and Cook County.

Ald. Silvana Tabares represents Chicago’s 23rd Ward.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.