Illinois State Police cracking down on vehicle-related crimes with help from state grant
Hundreds of stolen cars recovered and dozens of people accused in those thefts arrested, all thanks to special funding, according to Illinois State Police.
State police are cracking down on car thefts, carjackings and other violent crimes, such as road rage and aggressive driving. They are doing this by watching from cars, cameras and even planes, with help from a grant.
ISP Chicago Region Commander Patrick Manno says they have fixed-wing airplanes.
"They'll fly overhead with another trooper alongside them and they look down over, for the example here, our region, the city of Chicago. They're able to help us locate stolen vehicles and they can continue to monitor those while we're on the ground."
Back in 2023, ISP got a $10 million grant from the Illinois Secretary of State's Illinois Vehicle Hijacking and Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention and Insurance Verification Council. Then they got another $670,000 in June of 2024 and more than $630,000 in July of 2025. The funds for 2026 haven't been distributed yet.
As for why it's taking extra money to do the work? I'm told it's all about resources. The planes, license plate readers, extra training, stop sticks and K9 teams.
"When we combine all these things and tools that we've been able to use with this grant, we've really made an impact up here in the Chicago region," Manno said.
From April to June this year, ISP has:
- Recovered vehicles either stolen or hijacked - 342
- Made stolen vehicle arrests - 24
- Made carjacking arrests - 4
- Seized firearms as a result of stolen/hijacked vehicle recovery - 10
- Carried out missions targeting stolen/hijacked vehicle recovery and related violent crime - 20
- K9 used for stolen/hijacked vehicle recovery and related violent crime - 11
- Performed air operations targeting stolen/hijacked vehicle recovery and related violent crime - 20
- Conducted forensic laboratory assignments related to stolen/hijacked vehicle - 975
Where is the funding coming from?
How is ISP able to afford the mentioned resources? In a way, your insurance with the auto insurance industry. One dollar for every passenger vehicle it insures goes to the Secretary of State's Office, which then distributes this grant.
"We look at our data and where are we seeing a lot of fatal crashes that are due to reckless driving? Where are we seeing personal injury crashes? Where are we seeing interstate violence? Where are we seeing road rage complaints? And we'll take that and then reallocate our resources to those areas," Manno said.
Another concern? Dangerous, aggressive driving and road rage cases. ISP is confirming they're seeing more of it.
"The road rage where someone just maybe they don't fire a weapon at somebody, but they display a weapon. We would consider that a violent crime," Manno said
Is the extra grant money helping there? Manno says yes.
"We've been able to spearhead more proactive details up here in the Chicagoland area. And we're focusing on reckless drivers, shoulder riders, those things. When someone's driving aggressively or recklessly, they tend to get other drivers agitated. Driving on the shoulder when you're in bumper-to-bumper traffic gets others agitated. So by reallocating our troopers into these areas where we see this reckless driving, we're able to arrest more people of reckless driving."
