ROGERS PARK — A low crime rate and zero people shot this year in Rogers Park prompted the alderman to tell constituents of "a promising trend" emerging in the neighborhood.
"I'm pleased to report the partnership forged between Rogers Park residents and 24th District police officers is paying big dividends," Ald. Joe Moore (49th) wrote in an email to residents Wednesday afternoon.
Moore said no one had been shot in the Rogers Park police district — which also includes most of West Ridge — since Nov. 25, 2012. And only 245 crimes had been reported this year, the second lowest number of reported crimes of Chicago's 22 police districts.
He compared the district to Lincoln Park, Lakeview and Bucktown's 19th police district, which reported 522 crimes since Jan. 1.
"Only the 20th District, which includes portions of the Edgewater and Uptown communities, reported fewer crimes at 146," he wrote.
In the past two years, the police district had seen a 24 percent reduction in reported crime, he said, but the "same troubling upward trend experienced citywide" of homicide and shooting rates continued.
Last week, the alderman and district Cmdr. James Roussell told residents at a CAPS beat meeting that an undercover drug bust on Morse Avenue helped to lessen violence between two warring gang factions in the neighborhood.
"The fact we haven't had a shooting, the fact we haven't had a robbery," Moore said at the Feb. 21 meeting, "is a testament to their hard work."
