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Crime is Down Citywide Over the Past Four Years, Emanuel's Office Says

By Ted Cox | March 30, 2015 2:19pm
 The Emanuel administration says serious crime is down over the last four years.
The Emanuel administration says serious crime is down over the last four years.
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DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser

CITY HALL — The Emanuel administration is touting an almost citywide drop in serious crime over the last four years in statistics released this week.

According to crime stats prepared at the request of the City Council's Committee on Public Safety, serious crimes dropped from 2010 to 2014 in all of Chicago's 77 neighborhoods save one: O'Hare.

Compared with 2010 levels, burglaries, thefts, car thefts and aggravated batteries were all down dramatically from 2010 to 2014, and even shootings and murders were down slightly, from 2,311 shootings and 437 murders in 2010 to 2,083 shootings and 411 murders last year.

Murders did spike in between to 504 in 2012.

Only criminal sexual assaults rose slightly, from 1,447 in 2010 to 1,470 last year.

 Commissioner Jesus
Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia said, "Almost 2,000 homicides should give no one a sense that Chicago is a safer city."
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

Austin, Logan Square, Chicago Lawn, West Town and West Englewood saw the greatest reduction in actual incidents from 2010 to last year, while Montclare, Avondale, Belmont Cragin, Gage Park and Logan Square saw the greatest reduction by percentage, all at or near 50 percent of totals from 2010, before Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office.

Overall, serious crime dropped 36 percent.

According to the data, 70 out of 77 neighborhoods saw a 20 percent drop in crime, with 22 of those registering reductions of 40 percent or more.

"Through a commitment to community policing and partnerships with residents, we have made significant progress in reducing crime over the past few years, yet we all know there's much more work to be done," Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said.

"So we are building on our community-policing philosophy, putting more officers in high-crime areas and intervening in gang conflicts, and our work is being supported by the mayor, who is increasing investments in prevention programming."

Yet Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-Chicago), Emanuel's opponent in the April 7 runoff, countered that 10,500 shootings during Emanuel's tenure "and almost 2,000 homicides should give no one a sense that Chicago is a safer city."

He said it was an issue in both perception and reality in the city's neighborhoods, adding, "We should not allow people to become prisoners in their own home."

The Police Department attributed the slight rise in crime at O'Hare International Airport to cellphone and baggage thefts. There were 33 more crimes committed last year as compared to 2010, an increase of 10.8 percent.

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