The trooper didn’t chase. The driver of a black 2011 Infiniti G37 ignored a stop attempt on southbound Interstate 94 near 71st Street in Chicago at about 1:31 a.m. on October 10, an Illinois State Police spokesperson told the Lake and McHenry County Scanner, and kept going. By the time officers stopped the car on North Jackson Street in North Chicago, shortly after 3 a.m., radio traffic cited by the Scanner had it at up to 140 mph near Willow Road and above 130 mph in Lake County, with a Cook County Sheriff’s Police helicopter relaying its location.
Police took three people into custody there: a 19-year-old man, an 18-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl, North Chicago Assistant Chief Gary Lunn said. The state police spokesperson said the Infiniti was later determined to be stolen. Only the 19-year-old’s charges had been announced: two counts of aggravated fleeing and eluding and one count of aggravated unlawful possession of a stolen motor vehicle, the spokesperson said. Those are accusations, and the Scanner reported it was not immediately known whether the other two were charged.
What the radio traffic and flight data show
The state police aircraft was already following the car on the Dan Ryan Expressway near Garfield Boulevard around 1:22 a.m., and radio traffic put it near 130 mph before any emergency lights were on, the Scanner reported. It left the expressway briefly, ran Halsted Street and Vincennes Avenue at times with its headlights off, then took the Bishop Ford Freeway south and wound through Far South Side streets, slowing at one point to about 20 mph.
At 1:49 a.m. the car pulled into a warehouse lot near 122nd Street and Avenue O, where the aircraft crew reported a group of cars doing donuts. Troopers drove in with emergency lights on at 1:55 to clear the lot, and the Infiniti, which had been backed in behind a semitrailer, took off. The crew reported a near head-on collision with another vehicle on Torrance Avenue. From there the radio traffic traces the car north on the Dan Ryan and Kennedy expressways at around 90 mph and up the Edens Expressway to Dundee Road in Northbrook at 2:29 a.m. It got back on heading south and reached as much as 140 mph near Willow Road, then cut through Niles, took Interstate 294 north and crossed into Lake County near Lake Cook Road at 2:51 a.m. above 130 mph. It left Interstate 94 at Buckley Road at 2:57 a.m.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Police helicopter passed the car’s location to North Chicago officers over a statewide radio channel and said it had followed the car for about two hours, according to the radio traffic. ADS-B Exchange flight-tracking data reviewed by the Scanner put that helicopter over Chicago’s South Side by 1:24 a.m. and circling over North Chicago until about 3:08 a.m.
When the Infiniti stopped, the state police aircraft crew reported all of its doors coming open. A trooper at the scene reported that the car had keys but no license plates, light dents and scratches, and a sunroof that appeared to have been replaced and covered in tape.
Why the trooper let it go
The state police didn’t say why the trooper didn’t pursue. The department’s written pursuit directive, OPS-003, as posted on its website and last revised December 12, 2023, bars officers from initiating or joining a pursuit for traffic offenses or non-violent property crimes. It allows one only when the officer can articulate a reason to believe the occupants committed or attempted a forcible felony involving bodily harm, are escaping with a deadly weapon, or will endanger life or inflict great bodily harm unless stopped without delay. The trooper’s stop was for traffic violations, and the spokesperson said the car was identified as stolen afterward. The directive also contemplates officers tracking a vehicle by air after a ground pursuit ends.
Two felonies with different sentences
Under Section 11-204 of the Illinois Vehicle Code, ordinary fleeing is a Class A misdemeanor, with a license suspension of up to six months for a first conviction. Section 11-204.1 makes it a felony when the flight is at least 21 mph over the speed limit, injures anyone, causes more than $300 in property damage, disobeys two or more traffic control devices, or involves a concealed or altered plate. A first conviction is a Class 4 felony, which carries one to three years in prison under the state sentencing code, and the Secretary of State must revoke the driver’s license. The car used in the offense is also subject to seizure and forfeiture.
Both fleeing offenses start with a signal from an officer, visual or audible. The 130 mph stretch the radio traffic describes before any emergency lights came on therefore sits outside the text of those two sections. The spokesperson didn’t say which episodes the two counts cover. The radio traffic describes two moments when police signaled the car: the 1:31 a.m. stop attempt on Interstate 94 and the troopers’ entry into the warehouse lot at 1:55 a.m.
The stolen-vehicle count carries more weight. The spokesperson gave no section number, but Section 4-103.2 is the Vehicle Code’s aggravated vehicle offenses provision, and subsection (a)(7) covers a driver who isn’t entitled to a vehicle, knows it is stolen, and flees after an officer’s signal. There is no speed threshold. The penalty is a Class 1 felony, which means four to 15 years. Knowledge is the prosecution’s burden. The keys, missing plates and taped sunroof come from a trooper’s radio report, not from a court finding.
What the tracking bought and what it cost
Our read: the no-chase policy did its job here. The Scanner’s account describes no crash, and three people ended up in custody without a ground pursuit through Chicago, Niles and the tollway. The price was about two hours of a car at 130-plus mph on public roads, at times with its headlights off, including one near head-on. It also took two aircraft crews, the state police’s and the sheriff’s, to keep one sedan in sight. Not every department has two aircraft to spare. Some pursuits end fast: a Peoria County chase of a stolen motorcycle, which The Auto Wire covered earlier this fall, ended about a minute in when the bike ran out of gas.
What happens next
No court date has been reported. If the stolen-vehicle count holds, the gap between the two statutes is what prosecutors have to work with: one to three years on each fleeing count and four to 15 on the other, plus a license revocation on a conviction for aggravated fleeing. Whether the 18-year-old woman and the 15-year-old girl face any charges was not reported.
The Infiniti came close to a head-on on Torrance Avenue, and the Scanner reports no crash. Is that proof the no-chase rule works, or luck that held for two hours?