Chicago Murders Up 27 Percent So Far This Year Compared To 2011

Surprise, surprise. Shootings and murders in Chicago are up so far this year when compared to 2011.

According to Frank Main and Fran Spielman on the Chicago Sun-Times website last night, murder was up 27 percent for the first seven months of 2012, while shootings were up 6 percent in the same time period.

Yet, July saw some improvement in the murder column. Jeremy Gorner wrote on the Chicago Tribune website this morning:

Homicides fell in Chicago during July compared with a year earlier, the first monthly decline so far in 2012, which has seen murders spike by almost 27 percent.

July ended with 49 homicides, six fewer than in July 2011, an 11 percent drop, police statistics show…

Still, through July, 308 people have been killed, up 26.7 percent from 243 in the year-earlier period.

Main and Spielman reported that Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy said a comprehensive gang violence reduction strategy that was launched earlier this year is “taking hold.”

I hope McCarthy is right, but since we’re talking about only one month (July) of year-over-year decline here, the CPD, City Hall, and everyone else will just have to wait until August is done and over with to get a better idea of how that strategy is actually working.

Sources:

Main, Frank and Spielman, Fran. “City’s rising murder rate beginning to drop, top cop says.” Chicago Sun-Times. 1 Aug. 2012. (http://www.suntimes.com/14164166-761/citys-rising-murder-rate-beginning-to-drop-top-cop-says.html). 2 Aug. 2012.

Gorner, Jeremy. “July homicides drop but year-so-far tally up.” Chicago Tribune. 2 Aug. 2012. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-july-homicides-drop-but-yearsofar-tally-up-20120801,0,4856048.story). 2 Aug. 2012.