Overall Crime Down But Murders Still Up

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jun 7, 2010 2:20PM

Continuing a theme seen over the first four months of the year, crime in the city is still trending down, according to Chicago Police, but murders are still up over last year. With an overall six percent drop in crime in the first five months of 2010 over the same time period of 2009, there has also been an increase in murders: 164 so far this year compared to 158 last year. Despite the increase of overall murders over last year, the trend for the month of May remained steady compared to last year. According to Tracy Swartz, who's been doing a valiant job tracking the city's homicides for the Tribune via Red Eye (yes, that Red Eye), there were 47 murders in May 2010 which is the same as May 2009. So far in June, there have been seven reported murders; June 2009 had 46 homicides.

At a press conference discussing the up-to-date numbers, CPD Supt. Jody Weis said, succinctly, "Homicides continue to challenge us." And just a week after the CPD announced a new strategy in handling teens who violate the city's curfew laws (teens 17 and under are due home by 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends), Weis announced that there were more than 1,600 curfew violations last month. Also, as of the end of May, there were 28 murders involving Chicago Public School students for the 2009-2010 school year. Though that number would be zero in a perfect world, the number was still a decrease over last year, albeit by just three. When asked about the expected over-turning of the city's handgun ban when the SCOTUS issues a ruling later this month, Weis declined to comment on any possible effects, calling such speculation "premature."