With gun violence still high, Johnson hopes to repeat 2017 improvements in 2018

With his first full year on the job nearly over, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson insists he doesn’t really have any stress — especially compared to the Bible’s most downtrodden figure.

“I read the Book of Job probably at least once or twice a month,” Johnson said in his fifth floor office at 35th and Michigan. “That cat went through a lot. And if he can go through what he went through, this is child’s play.”

In a wide-ranging interview with reporters Thursday, Johnson reflected on Chicago’s sizable decrease in gun violence in 2017 after a historically violent 2016 and his goals for 2018 and beyond.

As of Dec. 24, Chicago had logged 644 murders, according to the CPD. In that same time period a year earlier, there were 754 murders. The city recorded 2,758 total shooting incidents as of Dec. 24, with 3,486 in the same period in 2016.

Johnson said he hopes to repeat that same success in 2018. The superintendent added that he thinks it’s “a reasonable goal” to see the city log fewer than 300 murders in a year, like New York City and Los Angeles.

The department repeatedly pointed to the drastic decreases in the Englewood District on the South Side and the Harrison District on the West Side — both among the city’s most violent — as signs of encouragement in its crime fighting efforts.

“If you can kind of lasso your most challenging areas, then that means you can do it anywhere in the city” Johnson said. “As a city, we should be encouraged by what we’re seeing because we easily could’ve gone the other way.”

The city’s drop in gun violence came in the wake of a particularly violent 2016 that saw more than 770 murder victims.

Even with the large decreases in 2017, gun violence remains at uncommonly high levels, even by Chicago standards. In November, the city crossed the 600 murders threshold. It’s only the third time since 2003 that the city has recorded that many murders in a year.

Asked about the spike in gun violence, Johnson offered up several reasons, including “mental health treatment, education, housing, medical treatment, jobs, economics, where people live.”

“All that stuff plays a part in it,” he said.

The superintendent said that the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video also played a role and that “a lot of criminals felt emboldened because of the national narrative.”

“At the end of 2015, that Laquan McDonald video was released, and you couple that with the national narrative — anti-police narrative — that set us up for a disastrous 2016 and we saw it,” Johnson said. “But it’s not about what happened then, it’s about what we do moving forward.”

Reflecting on his time as superintendent so far, Johnson noted that he didn’t apply for the job after Garry McCarthy was ousted in the wake of the McDonald video release, but he’s glad he took Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s offer.

“We all know that I didn’t apply to be superintendent, but I have to tell you, after a year and a half, I’m really glad that I took this job because I really do think I’m where I’m supposed to be and I can effect a lot of change for the rank-and-file and for the citizens,” he said.