Overview
- Chief Judge Charles Beach disclosed Tuesday that about 244 of 3,048 people on Cook County’s pretrial ankle monitors are unaccounted for under the program’s AWOL tally.
- AWOL now means an unapproved absence of three hours or more or a bracelet that is dead or offline, which can prompt a judge to issue an arrest warrant.
- The court published a public dashboard listing charges for those on monitoring and said escape updates will be routine, with the next report due May 26.
- Scrutiny deepened after prosecutors accused Alphonso Talley of killing Officer John Bartholomew, as court records show staff waited more than 53 hours to alert the judge after Talley’s device went dark in March.
- State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke called the figures alarming and said prosecutors will seek detention in public‑safety cases, while two law‑enforcement sources disputed claims that many AWOL defendants are being actively hunted.