Lake County News-Sun |

State’s attorney town hall focuses on Latinx community reluctance to report crimes; ‘Without that report … justice won’t start’

Seeking justice for crime victims is a prosecutor’s mission, but the job becomes harder when victims or witnesses are reluctant to come forward, Lake County’s state’s attorney told a group at a Hispanic Heritage Month event Monday in Waukegan.

Eric Rinehart gave attendees an overview of how the justice system process operates, but he acknowledged that hesitancy in the Latinx community to get involved, a fear often fueled as a result of immigration status, can short-circuit the process before it starts.

“If it doesn’t get reported, it doesn’t start the process,” one attendee said. “Reporting it is the roadblock because people are afraid to call the police to begin with.”

Rinehart agreed. “It’s a sad truth, but we need to talk about this,” he said.

The prosecutor, who was elected to office in November, said he hoped to explicitly address the issue through ongoing community dialogue and via events like the one Monday night.

“We have to just saturate — whether it’s through Facebook, whether it’s through email lists, through our partners in education — about the fact that the first job of the state’s attorney’s office is to protect people,” Rinehart said.

Police and prosecutors, he said, are not running people’s immigration status when they report a crime.

Jackie Herrera Giron, Rinehart’s chief of victim services, said, “The conversation needs to start with the community to let victims know that they can come in and report. Because, without that report happening, we won’t know, justice won’t start.”

Monday’s event was held in an open-sided tent at the Waukegan School District 60 headquarters and was promoted as a town hall focused on informing the Latino community how the state’s attorney’s office is working with nonprofits and other community groups. It was sponsored by Rinehart’s office in conjunction with the school district and several Latinx community organizations.