Chicago gun seizures tops in U.S., but doubts about police hurt prosecutions

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Amid a spike in shootings and murders that’s put a national spotlight on the city this year, authorities in Chicago are seizing more illegal guns than anywhere else in the country.

The Chicago Police Department says it has seized more than 5,500 illegal guns in the first nine months of this year — most of those confiscated during searches in high-crime areas on the South Side and the West Side. By comparison, the number of illegal guns seized in Chicago all last year was about 7,000 — about 583 a month, versus 611 a month this year.

But even though they’re winning seven of every 10 gun cases, Cook County prosecutors acknowledge they’re having a tougher time getting convictions.

In part, that’s because of the public’s concern over police tactics in the wake of high-profile shootings of African-Americans by police officers around the country, according to both prosecutors and defense attorneys. They say that’s caused growing skepticism among jurors about the credibility of police officers.

“It is probably more difficult to prove these gun possession cases than it has been in the past,” said Fabio Valentini, chief of the criminal prosecutions bureau for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. “I think it makes sense that the events of the last couple of years have affected the way that jurors look at police narratives.”

I guess some people are beginning to question whether only police should own handguns. No word yet from Hillary Clinton on this story.