Criminal Justice

Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 8/10/25

Mayor Brandon Johnson is celebrating a drop in crime in Chicago. Murders are down 22% in 2025 over the same period last year, and so is overall violent crime. The drop can’t be ignored. But can Johnson credibly make the claim that his “investments” in people is the reason why? Or is it that Chicago is just riding the national wave – almost a year late – finally catching up with the rest of the country’s massive drop

There’s a narrative out there among politicians and the media that’s promoting Chicago’s recent drop in homicides. Yes, everything else equal, Chicago’s drop in murders since its peak in 2021 is a good thing. But our pols and the media continue ignore the broader context.

2024 just wrapped up and the Cook County Medical Examiner has what should be the final count of youth homicides for 2024. It’s beyond tragic. 91 kids aged 19-and-under were killed in Chicago in 2024.

Chicago continues to a big outlier in the country for crime and, in particular, for murder. And yet the culture for addressing crime only gets worse. The mayor’s “defund the police” mentality. A District State’s Attorney office that refuses to criminalize crime. A Cook County judge that continues to decarcerate. A SAFE-T Act that allows more bad people to roam the streets. And a sanctuary status that invites an unknown number of criminals to Chicago.

Worries about the impact of the SAFE-T Act and the end of ShotSpotter were clearly overblown, you may have recently heard lawmakers say. But the facts aren’t that simple. Could crime have been even lower today had the SAFE-T Act not been passed? And ShotSpotter has purportedly saved 85 Chicagoans lives – would they be murder statistics absent that technology?

Chicago’s major crimes this year as of September 1 are down 11% vs. 2023, but keep in mind that 2023 was a banner year for crime in the city. 2024 crimes are still running far higher compared to any other year from 2019 and 2022.

Illinois’ media continues to give state and city politicians cover for their many failures. The media is so protective, in fact, that even pointing out the city’s obvious failures can get you dismissed as racist. The latest instance comes from the Chicago Sun-Times. It purports to fact check JD Vance’s declaration of Chicago as the nation’s murder capital, but the article is really more of a murders-and-crime-are-not-as-bad-as-they-say sort of piece.

When Chicagoans call 911, there’s a 50/50 chance there’ll be no cops available to help. Of the 256,000 high-priority 911 calls made so far in 2024, nearly 127,000 had no police available to immediately respond. The fact that victims of violent crime are essentially flipping a coin as to whether officers show up promptly is representative of the dysfunctional policing and criminal justice system in Chicago.

A bill awaiting Gov. Pritzker’s signature made headlines last month for renaming some “offenders” as “justice-impacted individuals.” The renaming comes as violent crimes continue to rise as part of a six-year streak.

Traumatizing robberies and violent crime continue to go up in Chicago this year, hitting a six-year high compared to the same time last year. It’s crime in neighborhoods perceived as safe, sometimes taking place in broad daylight, that’s driving the increased fear among Chicagoans and suburbanites.

The Democratic National Convention is coming to Chicago in August and its organizers are likely sweating over the potential mess it might become. Not because of the pro-Palestinian protests that are likely to occur, but because of Chicago’s unabated crime. It’s a mess that Chicago Mayor Johnson and other city officials have been incapable of addressing.

Chicagoans have a right to be concerned considering just how many stories there are of released defendants committing mayhem. Many make the news every day, but it’s hard to know just how prevalent they are among the sea of other crimes committed. That’s why we’ve compiled a short list of defendants who’ve been accused of committing violent crimes since the start of the new year.

While it’s still too early to know if the concerns regarding the SAFE-T Act are true, there are three data points that are already a cause for concern. Jail populations are shrinking. The number of defendants on electronic monitoring are down. And appeals against detention orders have skyrocketed.

Count on hearing repeatedly this year from Chicago’s leadership that it successfully brought down the city’s murder total by 13% in 2023. Chicago finished the year with 617 homicides, down from 709 in 2022. What you’re unlikely to hear are five additional facts that would temper any optimism gained from that first fact.

If you need a nudge to care about next year’s Cook County State’s Attorney race to replace retiring Kim Foxx, consider the robbery spree that occurred on Thanksgiving Day. The reasons for the current crime spike are many, but much of the blame resides with the failure to prosecute criminals, making next year’s race to replace Foxx the most consequential of the year.