Article 5, Part 3 – Immediate intervention procedures (705 ILCS 405/Article V, Part 3)
A. Station adjustments (705 ILCS 405/5-301): Station adjustments, whether formal or informal, account for the majority of dispositions utilized by juvenile police officers. They allow these officers to deal with juvenile offenders on the local level, even if it may be unclear whether or not the adjustments prove effective.
Different communities tolerate different degrees of juvenile crime. This being said, a juvenile officer’s discretion ranges from seeking a station adjustment to detention and is based upon the expectations of the community and the crime committed by the minor.
Some communities make juvenile police officers responsible for administering their agency’s station adjustment program and overseeing offender compliance with the program’s conditions. As one would expect, the ability to do this depends upon the size of the community. A city the size of Rockford may have adequate manpower to cover these responsibilities with juvenile police officers. A smaller community like Worth, Illinois, for instance, may not have the manpower to do so.
This unit will outline the maximum number of station adjustments a minor may receive during the course of his/her lifetime. For example, a juvenile offender who has had more than 9 police contacts must be petitioned to juvenile court. It is hoped that by brining the juvenile offender into the system early enough, he or she may be deterred from committing crimes by receiving the services or care lacking in his or her life.
On the other hand, waiting too long to petition to juvenile court may not serve theminor or community either. For example, an 11-year-old boy in Chicago killed a 14-year-old girl. Prior to the offense, he had over 40 police contacts, including drug and weapon offenses. None of these police contacts ever resulted in him being petitioned to juvenile court. The boy lived with a street gang and, consequently, had little parental supervision.
One cannot help but wonder if contact with the court system would have prevented this young boy from becoming more involved in the gang. Would it have assured supervision of the minor by a responsible adult? For this child, unfortunately, these questions will never be adequately answered.
If implemented properly, station adjustments allow juvenile officers and law enforcement agencies to become more involved with juvenile offenders.
A minor arrested for any offense or a violation of a condition of a previous station adjustment may receive a station adjustment for that arrest. In deciding whether or not to impose a station adjustment, either formal or informal, a juvenile officer will consider the following factors:
- The seriousness of the offense
- The minor’s prior history
- The age of the minor
- Did the minor understand that what he or she was doing was a criminal offense?
- Did the minor commit the offense in a premeditated or aggressive manner?
- Did the minor use or possess a deadly weapon at the time of the offense?
