South Cook News

Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau reports that crime rates have decreased significantly during his time as mayor. Pekau is running to represent Illinois' 6th District in Congress.

"Under my leadership, crime in Orland Park has fallen to the lowest rate in 27 years," Pekau said. "We achieved safer streets through a common-sense approach based on working as a community, hiring the best police officers, and prioritizing investigations."

Crime Grade has given Orland Park an "A" for overall safety, ranking it in the 87th percentile. That ranking means Orland Park is safer than 87% of the cities in the U.S. On average, a crime occurs every 9 hours and 39 minutes in Orland Park.

By comparison, Crime Grade rates the city of Chicago a "C-" for overall safety. Chicago scores a "D+" for both violent crime and property crime. Chicago ranks in the 33rd safety percentile, meaning 67% of U.S. cities are safer. On average, a crime occurs every minute in Chicago.

Safety.com named Orland Park the safest city in Illinois in 2021, according to Southland. Contributing factors are a top-tier police department and an engaged Village Board. 

"A lot of citizens and companies show a lot of appreciation to the police," Pekau said, according to Southland. "Last time I saw, our police have a favorable rating of somewhere near 91%, which may not be true in a lot of communities."