Cook County Criminals: Two Million Served

Pot earns man dubious distinction

By LORA LE SAGE

Updated 1:19 PM CST, Tue, Jul 28, 2009

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It may not be as many as McDonald's, but Cook County has now served 2 million criminals.

We're not sure if the milestone is good or bad but police recently gave a 38-year-old man from Indiana number 2 million for his "IR" number. The term stands for "individual record" and is used as an identification for tracking criminals in the Cook County system.

His crime? A traffic violation and possession of $10 worth of pot.

The system of one number per criminal has been used since 1962, when department officials decided to use it as a way to track a criminal's history.

Unlucky IR No. 1 went to James E. Lenon that year, according to the Sun-Times. Newspapers at the time reported he and two other men were killed in a police shootout after robbing a tavern in 1971.

"Their bodies had been riddled with bullets,'' the Chicago Daily News reported.

There's no shaking that number, either. That's because police now keep fingerprints on file with the IR.

"People often lie and don't tell us who they really are,'' said Joe Perfetti, director of records for the Chicago Police Department, told the Sun-Times. "We can positively identify someone within minutes.''