A missing 17-year-old in an affluent Boston suburb got drones, K9 teams, and thermal imaging units. In Chicago, 88 court-ordered warrants to seize guns from domestic abusers sit unexecuted. That gap tells you everything about who the system serves.
Cole Davison vanished Wednesday night from Needham, Massachusetts. By Thursday morning, an emergency alert was out. Needham Police Chief John Schlittler cited incoming weather and asked the public to stay away so their presence wouldn't interfere with thermal imaging. By Friday, Davison was located and receiving medical care. Multiple agencies had joined the search. The department said it was "incredibly relieved and happy."
Now look at Chicago. Under Karina's Law — named for Karina Gonzalez, shot dead by her husband in 2023 after his gun was never removed despite a protective order; her 15-year-old daughter Daniela died too — judges can issue firearm seizure warrants when granting orders of protection. Police have 96 hours to execute them.
The Chicago Sun-Times obtained records showing CPD has received at least 91 such warrants since the law took effect. They've served three.
Three out of 91.
A 26-year-old mother identified as Dominique got her protective order and a warrant after her ex-boyfriend pointed a gun at her head. Two days later, a Chicago cop was back in court asking the judge to drop the warrant, arguing too much time had passed since Dominique last saw the gun to "conclusively say that that firearm remains in the location." Dominique told the judge in September: "I just don't want to die."
CPD's spokesperson says it's a safety issue — for the officers. "Our focus is on recovering weapons from domestic violence offenders in the safest manner possible for all individuals involved." The spokesperson noted some guns are taken during arrests or surrendered voluntarily after a warrant is issued.
Advocates call it flouting the law. Dominique asks what it would take for police to act: "Would it take [being] harmed or a fatal incident?"
The New York Post covered Davison's recovery straight — relief, gratitude, medical care. The Chicago Sun-Times dug into the numbers that expose a system refusing to do its job. Neither outlet connected the two stories. But the connection is the story.
Needham is an affluent Boston suburb. It got the full apparatus. Chicago survivors get a cop in court asking to void the warrant. One system works. The other doesn't. Both are run by the same class of officials who lecture the public about priorities. The question isn't whether Cole Davison deserved every resource deployed to find him — of course he did. The question is why a woman staring down the barrel of a gun doesn't get the same urgency.
