Crime in Chicago

Chicago
Crime rates* (2016)
Violent crimes
Homicide	20.88
Rape	52.4**
Robbery	353.6
Aggravated assault	480.2
Total violent crime	903.8
Property crimes
Burglary	481.9
Larceny-theft	2089.7
Motor vehicle theft	374.6
Arson	16.9
Total property crime	2946.2
Notes *Number of reported crimes per 100,000 population. ** Revised definition Source: [ ]

Crime in Chicago has been tracked by the Chicago Police Department's Bureau of Records since the beginning of the 20th century. The city's overall crime rate, especially the violent crime rate, is substantially higher than the US average. Chicago was responsible for nearly half of 2016's national increase in homicides in the US.

Overview

Chicago saw a major rise in violent crime starting in the late 1960s. Murders in the city first peaked in 1974, with 970 murders when the city's population was over three million, resulting in a murder rate of around 29 per 100,000, and again in 1992, with 943 murders when the city had fewer than three million people, resulting in a murder rate of 34 murders per 100,000 citizens.

After 1992, the murder count decreased to 641 murders. The population was at 2,799,000 in 1999, so the decrease was slow, but still an improvement. In 2002, Chicago had fewer murders but a significantly higher murder rate than New York or Los Angeles.

Violent crime

Homicide map by police district (click to enlarge).

Chicago experienced a major rise in violent crime starting in the late 1960s, a decline in overall crime in the 2000s, and then a rebound in overall murders the mid-2010s. Murder, rape, and robbery are common violent crimes in the city, and the occurrences of such incidents are documented by the Chicago Police Department and indexed in annual crime reports.

After adopting crime-fighting techniques in 2004 that were recommended by the Los Angeles Police Department and the New York City Police Department, Chicago recorded 448 homicides, the lowest total since 1965. This murder rate of 15.65 per 100,000 population is still above the U.S. average, an average which takes in many small towns and suburbs.

Chicago's homicide rate had surpassed that of Los Angeles by 2010 (16.02 per 100,000), and was more than twice that of New York City (7.0 per 100,000) in the same year. By the end of 2015, Chicago's homicide rate would rise to 18.6 per 100,000. By 2016, Chicago had recorded more homicides and shooting victims than New York City and Los Angeles combined. Chicago's biggest criminal justice challenges have not changed much over the last 50 years, and statistically reside with homicide, armed robbery, gang violence, and aggravated battery. On March 27 of 2016, Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed former CPD Chief of Patrol, Eddie Johnson, as the new police superintendent, who was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the Chicago City Council in April 2016. Johnson replaced interim superintendent, John Escalante.

Murder and shootings

CPD working a murder crime scene in Englewood.

According to the 2011 Homicide Report released by the Chicago Police Department, the murder clearance rate has dropped from over 70% for 1991 to under 34% for 2011. Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said a pervasive "no-snitch code" on the street remains the biggest reason more murders aren’t being solved in Chicago, adding,“We’re not doing well because we’re not getting cooperation". By 2016, Chicago's murder clearance rate had dropped to only 21%, and it's detective force had dwindled from 1,151 in 2009 to 863 as of July 2016. A Chicago Magazine article further pointed out that, "in Chicago, people are quite literally getting away with murder". 76.3 percent of murder victims had a prior arrest history. Warmer months have significantly higher murder rates, and over 70% of murders take place between 7PM and 5AM.

In 2011, 83% of murders involved a firearm, and 6.4% were the result of a stabbing. 10% of murders in 2011 were the result of an armed robbery and at least 60% were gang or gang narcotics altercations. Over 40% of victims and 60% of offenders were between the ages of 17 and 25. 90.1% of victims were male. 75.3% of victims and 70.5% of offenders were African American, 18.9% were Hispanic (20.3% of offenders), and 5.6% were white (3.5% of offenders).

Murder rates in Chicago vary greatly depending on the neighborhood in question. Many neighborhoods on the South Side tend to be poorer, less educated, predominantly African American, and infested with street gangs. The neighborhoods of Englewood on the South Side, and Austin on the West side, for example, have homicide rates that are 10 times higher than other parts of the city. Violence in these neighborhoods has had a detrimental impact on the academic performance of children in schools, as well as a higher financial burden for school districts in need of counselors, social workers, and psychiatrists to help children cope with the violence. In 2014, Chicago Public Schools adopted the "Safe Passage Route" program to place unarmed volunteers, police officers and firefighters along designated walking routes to provide security for children en route to school. From 2010-2014, 114 school children were murdered in Chicago.

Crime scene from a CPD shootout with an armed suspect in 2016

2015 saw an increase in homicides and shooting incidents compared to 2014. In October, over 18 area alderman called for Mayor Rahm Emannuel to dismiss Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy citing a 21% increase in murders and shootings in 2015. Also in October 2015, Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH called for President Obama to declare a state of emergency in Chicago over gun violence. McCarthy was later terminated by Emanuel following the fall out from the shooting of Laquan McDonald. In 2015, Chicago recorded 2,987 shooting victims and 488 homicides.

A gunshot wound to center mass can quickly prove fatal without immediate medical attention due to blood loss and Internal injuries. Chicago emergency responders and ER doctors have been praised for their ability to keep the vast majority of shooting victims alive. In September 2015, University of Chicago Medicine and Sinai Health Systems announced a joint 40 million dollar venture to convert Holy Cross Hospital into a level 1 trauma center on the South side, making some of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods less than 5 miles from high quality care. Non-fatal gunshot victims in Chicago had an overall rate of occurrence of 46.5 per 100,000 from 2006-2012, with a demographic breakdown of 1.62 per 100,000 for whites; 28.72 for Hispanics, and 112.83 for blacks. It is estimated that the medical expenses associated with gun violence costs the city of Chicago 2.5 billion dollars a year.

Chicago has been criticized for comparatively light sentencing guidelines for those found illegally in possession of a firearm. Most people convicted of illegal gun possession receive the minimum sentence, one year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis found, and serve less than half of the sentence because of time for good behavior and pre-trial confinement. The minimum sentence for felons found in possession of a firearm is 2 years. Those charged with simple gun possession had an average of four prior arrests. Those charged with gun possession by a felon had an average of 10 prior arrests. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has unsuccessfully pushed the Illinois General Assembly for tougher sentencing guidelines for gun possession. Legislation was opposed by African American legislators who felt it would unfairly target blacks, and also the NRA, who felt that law-abiding, first time offenders would be unjustly caught in the same criminal net as gang members.

In July 2015, Chicago recorded a grisly and still unsolved quadruple homicide in the Chatham neighborhood which left a single mother and her 3 children all dead. In October 2015, Chicago was named "America's mass shooting capital", citing 18 occasions in 2015 in which 4 or more people were shot in a single incident. By October 2016, Chicago had already recorded 28 mass shooting incidents for the year, resulting in 12 fatalities and dozens injured. 2016's largest mass shooting event took place on October 15. A shooter in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood on Chicago's West side opened fire on a group of people from a passing vehicle killing one and injuring 6 others.

2016 began as the bloodiest initial quarter of a year in Chicago in decades. More than 500 people were shot just within the first 10 days of the year. By the end of March, the murder rate in Chicago had soared 72% compared to the same time frame in 2015, leaving 345 people murdered. Shooting victims that managed to survive their injuries also saw a sharp increase of 88 percent compared to 2015, leaving 676 people with gunshot wounds. In the FBI's preliminary 2015 UCR (Uniform Crime Report) covering the first half of 2015, it noted an 18.29% increase in murders compared to 2014's data. The end of Memorial Day weekend closed out the bloodiest May in Chicago in over 2 decades, leaving 123 murdered and nearly 899 shot. Father's Day weekend marked the most violent to date in 2016 in terms of loss of life, with 67 people killed and at least 167 wounded. The Labor Day holiday weekend of in Chicago also tallied 13 killed, with another 52 injured from gunfire. Chicago recorded over 876 people shot over 4 July weekend. Arthur Lurigio, a professor of criminal justice and psychology at Loyola University, called the escalating violence "alarming", further commenting that "we have to go back decades to find jumps of this magnitude in year-to-year comparisons. We're on our way to 500 homicides again. We're going backward."

August 2016 marked the most violent month Chicago had recorded in over two decades with 169 murders, included the murder of Nykea Aldridge, cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade. By September 2016, Chicago had reached 878 people murdered and 3000 people shot, surpassing totals for all of 2015 in just 9 months.By October 2016, Chicago had surpassed 900 homicides and over 4509 people shot, marking a 32 percent increase in murders and non-fatal shootings compared to 2015. Chicago's 2016 murder and shooting surge has attracted national attention from various press outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, USA Today, Time Magazine and PBS. Filmmaker Spike Lee's 2015 release, Chi-Raq, highlights Chicago's gun violence using a narrative inspired by the Greek comedy Lysistrata.

Chicago street gangs

Gangster Disciples "tag" in Chicago

Chicago is considered the most gang infested city in the United States, with a population of over 100,000 active members from nearly 60 different factions. Gang warfare and retaliation is common in Chicago. Gangs were responsible for 61% of the homicides in Chicago in 2011 Examples of large Chicago street gangs include the Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Bloods, Crips, Black Disciples, Four Corner Hustlers, Black P. Stones, and Latin Kings.

Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy blames Chicago's gang culture for its high rates of homicide and other violent crime, stating "It’s very frustrating to know that it’s like 7 percent of the population causes 80 percent of the violent crime...The gangs here are traditional gangs that are generational, if you will. The grandfather was a gang member, the father’s a gang member, and the kid right now is going to be a gang member."

Mayor Rahm Emanuel disbanded the Chicago Police Department's anti-gang unit in 2012.

==Annuel murder totals by year==

Number of larceny Chicago by year

1928: 498

1964: 390

1965: 396

1966: 512

1966: 510 [citation needed]

1967: 548

1967: 522 [citation needed]

1968: 645

1969: 715

1970: 810

1971: 824

1972: 711

1973: 862

1974: 970

1975: 818

1976: 814

1977: 823

1978: 787

1979: 856

1980: 863

1981: 877

1982: 668

1983: 729

1984: 741

1985: 666

1986: 744

1987: 691

1988: 660

1989: 742

1990: 851

1991: 928

1992: 943

1993: 855

1994: 931

1995: 828

1996: 796

1997: 761

1998: 704

1999: 643

2000: 633

2001: 667

2002: 656

2003: 601

2004: 453

2005: 602

2006: 471

2007: 448

2008: 513

2009: 459

2010: 436

2011: 435

2012: 516

2013: 441

2014: 432

2015:492

2016:752

Public corruption and political crime

Chicago has a long history of public corruption that regularly draws the attention of federal law enforcement and prosecutors. Chicago's political landscape has been firmly under the control of the Democratic Party for over 50 years and has been widely described as a political machine. In the 1980s, the FBI's Operation Greylord uncovered massive and systemic corruption in Chicago's judicial system. Greylord was the longest and most successful undercover operation in the history of the FBI, and resulted in 92 federal indictments, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, eight policemen, 10 deputy sheriffs, eight court officials, and one state legislator. Nearly all were convicted on a variety of charges including bribery, kickbacks, fraud, vote buying, racketeering, and drug trafficking.

The late 1980s and 1990s saw further efforts by the FBI to prosecute Chicago's public crime syndicates. Operation Incubator obtained about a dozen convictions or guilty pleas, including those from five members of the City Council and an aide to former Mayor Harold Washington. Later Operation Gambat brought a wide range of charges against a Chicago judge, a state senator, an alderman, and two others relating to corruption in the Cook County Circuit Court, the Illinois Senate, and the Chicago City Council. 4 were convicted and a 5th died during trial. The most extensive operation by the FBI of the 1990s, Operation Silver Shovel, sought to uncover corruption within Chicago labor unions, organized crime, and other city government officials. Operation Silver Shovel resulted in the conviction of 6 Chicago Alderman and a dozen other local officials on a wide range of corruption related charges.

File:Corrupt.jpg

Quantitative scholarly report that documents the history of Chicago's corruption.

From 1972 to 2012, 33 Chicago Alderman were convicted on corruption charges, a conviction rate of roughly ⅓ of those elected in the time period. A report from the Office of the Legislative Inspector General noted that over half of Chicago's elected alderman took illegal campaign contributions in 2013. In 2015, mayor appointed Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, was convicted in a 23 million dollar kickback scheme and was sentenced to 7 and a half years in prison. In addition to the Bennett conviction, a joint investigative report issued by the Office of the Inspector General and federal authorities documented widespread corruption within Chicago Public Schools in 2015. The audit noted the criminal shakedown of a CPS vendor, a records falsification scheme by a principal, numerous instances of employees abusing CPS’s tax-exempt status to purchase personal items at big-box retailers, illegally using taxpayer-funded resources to campaign for political causes and stealing from taxpayer-funded accounts intended for purchasing student materials.

Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and county assessor, Joseph Berrios, has been continually accused of nepotism, cronyism and abusive political patronage. Just days into his tenure, Berrios hired his son and sister to his staff, retaining them even after 58 others were laid off due to budget cuts. Berrios also hired his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Vicki LaCalamita, to be his new director of Human Resources, with a salary of $107,841 and later hired LaCalamita's son and cousin.

A 2015 report released by the University of Illinois at Chicago's political science department declared Chicago the "corruption capital of America", citing that the Chicago-based Federal Judicial District for Northern Illinois reported 45 public corruption convictions for 2013 and a total of 1,642 convictions for the 38 years since 1976 when the U.S. Department of Justice began compiling the statistics. UIC Professor and former Chicago Alderman Dick Simpson noted in the report that "To end corruption, society needs to do more than convict the guys that get caught. A comprehensive anti-corruption strategy must be forged and carried out over at least a decade. A new political culture in which public corruption is no longer tolerated must be created".

The FBI's Chicago division.

Examples of other high-profile Chicago political figures convicted on corruption related charges include Rod Blagojevich, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Isaac Carothers, Arenda Troutman, Edward Vrdolyak, Otto Kerner, Jr., Constance Howard, Fred Roti and Dan Rostenkowski.

In October 2015, the FBI announced that Michael Anderson would be taking over for a retiring Robert Holley as Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Bureau. Anderson, a corruption veteran who wrote the FBI Public Corruption Field Guide, called Chicago "target rich" for cases in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. Anderson commands a team of 850 agents in Chicago along with analysts and support staff.

Most corruption cases in Chicago are prosecuted by the US Attorney's office, as legal jurisdiction makes most offenses punishable as a federal crime. The current US Attorney for the Northern district of Illinois is Zachary T. Fardon. In a press conference in January 2016, in the wake of the conviction of former Chicago City Hall official, John Bills, for taking 2 million dollars in bribes, Fardon commented "Public corruption [in Chicago] is a disease and where public officials violate the public trust, we have to hold them accountable. And I do believe that by doing so, it sends a deterrent message."

Policing

Main article: Chicago Police Department

Chicago Police insignia

Chicago was among one of the first U.S. cities to build an integrated emergency response center to coordinate the city's response to natural disasters, gang violence, and terrorist attacks. Built in 1995, the center is integrated with more than 2000 cameras, communications with all levels of city government, and a direct link to the National Counterterrorism Center. Police credited surveillance cameras with contributing to decreased crime in 2004.

In 2003, the Chicago Police Department began installing POD's (Police Observation Devices) in high crime areas. The cameras are able to rotate 360 degrees and zoom to a fine level of detail. The devices are also bullet proof, operable in any weather condition, record continuously and switch into night vision mode after dark. POD's are used to monitor street crimes and direct police deployment. Data from the cameras is wirelessly transmitted to the Chicago Crime Prevention and Information Center (CPIC) which can individually control any camera. Over 20,000 cameras are currently in operation in Chicago. In addition to PODs, often referred to as "blue light cameras" colloquially, the city has added general surveillance cameras to CTA stations, busses, Chicago Housing Authority buildings, public buildings and schools. This has prompted harsh criticism from privacy advocates and the ACLU who called the program "A pervasive and poorly regulated threat to our privacy".

Chicago POD Camera in operation

The Chicago Police Department has also been criticized for its liberal use of the controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy. The policy gives officers much more autonomy to conduct stops and pat-down's if there exists a reasonable suspicion that a suspect might be armed and dangerous. The ACLU has claimed that the policy unfairly targets African Americans, who accounted for nearly 75% of those stopped in 2014 even though they make up only about a third of the city’s population. The Chicago Police Department confiscated almost 7000 firearms in 2014, about 583 per month. The stop and frisk policy was largely abandoned by CPD in early 2016.

Because the Chicago Police Department tallies data differently than police in other cities, the FBI often does not accept their crime statistics. Chicago police officers record all criminal sexual assaults, as opposed to only rape. They count aggravated battery together with the standard category of aggravated assault. As a result, Chicago is often omitted from studies such as Morgan Quitno's annual "Safest/Most Dangerous City" survey, which relies on FBI-collected data.

The Chicago Police Department developed a tool to assist city residents in problem-solving and combating crime and disorder in their neighborhoods. It is based upon the CLEAR (Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting) system developed by the Department for use by its police officers. This web application enables citizens to search the Chicago Police Department's database of reported crime. Individuals are able to see maps, graphs, and tables of reported crime. The database contains 90 days of information, which can be accessed in blocks of up to 14 days. Data is refreshed daily. However, the most recent information is always 6 days old.

The Chicago Police Department has a long history of using data. Chicago's record number of homicides, with 56 in September 2015, has triggered "guardian-like" intervention, a method for predicting the likelihood that an individual will be involved in violence, either as a victim or perpetrator. The guardian method relies on information from an individual's criminal history in order to “build public trust and legitimacy."

CPD tallied 22 police involved shootings in 2015, 8 of which resulted in fatalities. Fatality cases involving an African American perpetrator often gave rise to a media sensation, both in Chicago and elsewhere. In December 2015, the US Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department in the aftermath of the Laquan McDonald case. The "pattern and practice" probe evaluated the use of force, deadly force, accountability and tracking procedures of the department. A 190-page report issued in April 2016 deemed the Chicago Police Department a racist organization. Chairman of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, Dean Angelo called the report "totally biased" and "utterly ridiculous".

2016's surge in murders and shootings, coupled with a decline in gun seizures, led former Police Superintendent John Escalante to express concerns in March 2016 that officers might be hesitant to engage in proactive policing due to fear of retribution. Officers anonymously reported to the Chicago Sun-Times that they have been afraid to make investigatory stops because the Justice Department and American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois have been scrutinizing police practices. Data of the supposed pullback was reflected with an 80 percent decrease in the number of street stops that officers made since the beginning of 2016. Dean Angelo has claimed that part of the problem is politicians and groups like the ACLU who don't know much about policing, and yet are "dictating what police officers do".

Chicago Police crime reporting accuracy

In 2014 and 2015, Chicago Magazine and The Economist conducted investigations into the CompStat data reporting of crime statistics for the city and reported irregularities. In addition, an audit conducted by Chicago's Office of the Inspector General found significant problems in the accuracy of CPD’s crime data.

According to Chicago Magazine, superiors often pressure officers to under-report crime. An unnamed police source quoted in the magazine says there are “a million tiny ways to do it,” such as misclassifying and downgrading offenses, counting multiple incidents as single events, and discouraging residents from reporting crime. Chicago Police has responded that their statistics are generally accurate and that the discrepancies can be explained by differences in the Uniform Crime Reporting used by the FBI and CompStat.

See also

• Gun violence
• Kids Off The Block
• Violent crime
• Political Machine
• Systemic corruption

References

Further reading

• Lesy, Michael (2007). Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties. W. W. Norton. ISBN 0393060306.
• Hagedorn, John and Brigid Rauch. "Housing, Gangs, and Homicide What We Can Learn from Chicago." Urban Affairs Review. March 2007 vol. 42 no. 4 435-456. doi: 10.1177/1078087406294435.

External links

• Chicago Police Department
• CPD crime map generator
• ChicagoCrime.org
• Chicago homicide map generator
• Online Crime Map of Chicago- SpotCrime.com
• Burglars In Chicago