By Lian Gako and Lorena Mendez
@redlineproject
On Sept. 12, Bokeh, a cocktail bar in Albany Park, was burglarized for the second time in two years.
“They smashed open the front door,” said Rick Weber, Albany Park resident and the owner of Bokeh. “They took our cash drawer and our safe.”
Weber described the suspects as a group of three or four people dressed in black clothes with faces obscured, making them hard to identify. A vehicle was caught on camera, but no arrests have been made.
Smash-and-grab burglaries have been an ongoing issue in the Northwest side of Chicago and Bokeh is just one of the half-dozen small businesses targeted.
Some of the highly affected neighborhoods include Albany Park, Irving Park, Portage Park and Jefferson Park. The crimes have left local business owners frustrated while aldermen search for a solution.
Since 2021, burglaries in Jefferson Park have been up 24% while Chicago, in general, has seen an increase of 33%.
When asked about the burglaries, Ald. Ruth Cruz (30th ward) discussed the possibility of financial support given to affected businesses.
“How do we allocate some sort of funding to help our businesses? I think that is something that we can definitely look into,” Cruz said.
Cruz’s 30th ward includes Portage Park, one of the targeted neighborhoods. Though optimistic, the type of funding she spoke about is not something that can be easily done.
“We would need the administration’s support to try to allocate that funding,” Cruz said. “It’s really a collaboration between city, state and federal.”
According to Cruz, police have shifted their focus and are now trying to pick up on patterns and behaviors in these burglaries and robberies. Burglars have developed a specialty in the type of businesses they target, strictly focusing on restaurants or liquor stores that carry large amounts of cash, allowing them to be in and out within seconds.
But with the city’s ongoing police shortage, how can businesses in these communities count that someone is going to be held accountable?
Cruz added that there is progress being made behind the scenes, but it’s not being reported on.
“There are individuals that are being held accountable for their harm, it is happening,” Cruz said.
Cruz encourages all residents to call 911 when they feel something is off. Increased police presence will simultaneously create a service log to pinpoint hot spots around her ward.
Building a partnership between area aldermen and Area 5 police has been crucial to the sharing of information between government officials and the residents of the community. Cruz said she believes that if more residents and business owners were to attend Area 5 Beat Meetings with police officers, they can learn crucial pieces of information.
Additionally, Cruz encouraged business owners to create relationships with surrounding neighbors and stressed the importance of saying something if you see something.
Business owners and residents are reaching out to the Chicago Police Department (CPD). On Oct. 2, 25 residents shared their concerns about the spike in burglaries during the Jefferson Park Police District’s public safety meeting.
These meetings are a result of the CPD’s Office of Community Policing (OCP) which began in 2017. OCP ensures that Community Policing Strategic Plans are being developed with residents, allowing them to have input in what particular crimes their District should focus on and aim to reduce.
In their 2024 Strategic Plan, District 16, which oversees Jefferson Park, listed burglaries as their third problem-solving priority. For their response strategy, the District plans to utilize vehicle and bicycle patrol throughout the year. To mitigate commercial burglaries, they want to focus on lighting, cameras, and internal security.
Similarly, District 17, which covers Albany Park, also listed burglaries as their third-highest priority. In its analysis of the main cause of these burglaries, the District blames poor lighting and locking mechanisms. However, there is only so much business owners can do when it comes to security.
“You can get iron doors, you can get garage doors, you can get extra cameras, and at the end of the day, you’re still kind of at the mercy of life,” Weber said.
Without financial support from the city, business owners turn to their patrons and other members of the community for help. When Bokeh was broken into for the second time, Weber reached out on Instagram to the establishment’s loyal supporters.
“I guess for me, it felt like I didn’t really know what else to do,” Weber said. “But I also know that we’ve got a really amazing group of people that come in here … a really solid group of regulars that we see.”
Despite the damage done, Bokeh repaired its door the same day it was broken into and was open for service later that afternoon.
Businesses are facing difficulties when they are forced to pay out of pocket for repairs that cost less than their insurance deductible.
“I think we can do better as a city and create some sort of emergency funds,” Cruz said.
Many of these small businesses are family-owned and unforeseen costs can have a negative impact. Large retailers like Apple and Lululemon have had similar break-ins, but can handle the extreme losses.
For now, it’s just a waiting game for business owners like Weber, who is determined to keep his bar in the area and stresses the importance of his business being a safe place for his regular customers.
“A lot of people are living day to day and hoping that the next day’s sales are good so they can make it to the next day and so on,” he said.
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