A new study from a researcher at the University of Illinois found a connection between the rollout of e-scooters in Chicago and a rise in certain crimes in the city.

While there are plenty of benefits to having easily accessible scooters, the study warns that there are hidden social costs that cities should consider. 

In 2019, Chicago allowed 10 companies to deploy e-scooter rentals across a 50-square-mile area on the West and Northwest Sides of the city.

While many applauded the roll forward for micro-mobility, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign business professor Unnati Narang and her co-author Ruichun Liu were concerned about the use of the getaway scooter. 

Her just-released findings looked at 41 weeks of data before and after the e-scooter rollout and found they coincided with a nearly 18% rise in street and vehicle-related crimes — like car break-ins and thefts.

"We really wanted to see what is a broader societal effect on consumers' lives," she said. "So if you have somebody, their bag or wallet is snatched, and e-scooters provide a way of an easy escape, because they're much more faster and difficult to catch, so those are the kinds of crimes we were seeing an increase in."

While she didn't see a statistical uptick in violent crime with the e-scooter data from the rollout, it's a trend CBS News Chicago covered recently.

A gunman fired shots at a teenage boy from an e-scooter in West Ridge in July. Days before, an armed scooter rider rolled up and shot a 40-year-old man in the leg. In September, police sent out a warning about a man on a scooter groping women in Humboldt Park, Garfield Park, and North Lawndale.

When it comes to vehicle-related crimes, Narang said the impact was felt differently depending on the neighborhood. Areas that have more people of color have higher increases in crime relative to the average 18% found. In younger neighborhoods, scooters were associated with a nearly 21% increase in crime.

Narang hasn't given up on e-scooters, though. She said that with any technology, Chicago has space to learn from these findings.

"With the right awareness and with the right infrastructure and regulation in place, we could potentially see more of the benefits at play compared to their costs," she said.

While e-scooters are often touted as a green alternative, Narang said they actually found that they led to a nearly 16% increase in the number of short rideshare trips, ultimately having a negative impact on carbon emissions.