The figures point to weaknesses across the system meant to protect people from abuse, from serving court orders to responding to calls and prosecuting alleged violations. Domestic homicides in Cook County rose 15% in 2025, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office; some victims had obtained or sought protection orders.

In one case, a woman in East Garfield Park called 911 repeatedly last September as her ex-boyfriend tried to break into her home, where she was with her three children. A dispatcher said officers were unavailable because of a backlog. Police arrived nearly two hours after the first call, after glass shattered and a neighbor reported hearing gunfire.

The man, 33-year-old Trashawn Steele, was taken to a hospital and died after being shot by a person known to the family who had a concealed-carry license, according to police records. The woman did not have an order against Steele, but another woman did. Court records show Steele had been arrested 30 times on domestic-violence charges involving multiple women and had faced three protection orders. Many of the charges, including alleged order violations, were dropped.

The analysis found about 7,000 Chicago 911 calls last year related to protection-order violations, as well as roughly 2,000 calls and walk-ins handled by a police unit that responds to some non-emergency matters. Calls may be closed without a crime report, including under broad categories such as “no one found” or “miscellaneous incident.”

Police also responded to roughly 13,200 alerts last year from electronic-monitoring devices when people accused of abuse entered restricted areas around victims’ homes or workplaces. About 99% of those dispatches did not result in a criminal report, and police made 32 arrests. The monitoring system is part of the Cindy Bischof Law, named for an Elmhurst woman killed by her former boyfriend in 2008 after protection-order violations.

Orders must generally be served on the person accused of abuse before they can be enforced. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said its service rate had climbed to 60% so far this year, more than double the rate during the pandemic. The analysis identified 617 domestic offenses last year in which an order was on file but had not yet been served, preventing a violation charge based on that order.

Even when police make an arrest, prosecution does not always follow. An examination of court records found that about 67% of cases involving protection-order violations ended with charges dropped by prosecutors or judges. Roughly one-third ended in a conviction. About 38% of people charged with violating an order last year had been charged with a violation before, and most were men.

Anne McCord Rodgers, chief of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Special Victims Bureau, said decisions about prosecution take account of each survivor’s circumstances and wishes. Some people want a police report to document abuse but do not want to pursue criminal charges, she said. Prosecutors may also drop a violation charge while pursuing a more serious allegation, such as domestic battery.

The consequences of delays and dismissed cases can be severe. Maria Roque reported repeated harassment by her former partner after obtaining a protection order in 2023, including alleged phone and text harassment, damage to her property and a car fire. Police reports were suspended without arrests, and her former partner was not served with the order until court. An arrest warrant was issued the day before Roque was killed in front of her children, according to court records. Her former partner was charged in her death and remains in custody awaiting trial.

Black women accounted for 42% of Chicago protection-order cases in the latest available victim demographic data, from 2023; Hispanic women accounted for 24%. Illinois does not comprehensively track protection-order violations and service, limiting the ability to measure how often orders are enforced.

Two bills introduced in the Illinois Senate seek to change penalties and detention rules for alleged violators. One proposal would make a violation a felony without requiring a prior conviction. Another would extend the mandatory post-arrest hold from 24 to 48 hours for first-time violators and to 96 hours for repeat violations. Both proposals would need legislative approval to become law.

Harvard Law lecturer Diane Rosenfeld, a domestic-violence expert, called for better coordination among police, courts and prosecutors, and said high-risk cases need closer intervention. “Domestic violence homicide is so predictable as to be preventable,” she said.