CPD releases March crime stats touting 15 percent drop in overall citywide crime

SHARE CPD releases March crime stats touting 15 percent drop in overall citywide crime
A man was arrested Jan. 11 after crashing a stolen vehicle in Austin.

Sun-Times file photo

Getty Images

The Chicago Police Department released statistics for the month of March early Sunday that showed a significant drop in overall citywide crime, including decreases in both murders and shootings.

The city’s 2018 crime rate is down by 15 percent from the same time last year, according to CPD.

There were 29 murders in March, marking a 25 percent decrease from the 39 killings recorded in the same month last year, CPD said.

March’s murder count brings the total number of slayings in the year’s first three month’s to 108, which accounts for a 22 percent decrease from the 140 killings tallied through the same time period last year, CPD said.

The homicide count kept by the police department does not include fatal shootings by police, or killings that are ruled to be in self-defense.

The department tallied 137 shootings in March, marking a 17 percent drop from the 166 shootings during the same month last year.

The city has seen a total of 422 shootings so far this year, which marks a 25 percent decrease over the same time period last year, when 565 shootings were tallied, CPD said.

A total of 154 people were shot in March, marking a significant drop from the 206 people shot during the same month last year, CPD said. Overall, 501 people have been wounded in citywide shootings in 2018 compared to 709 people shot at the same time last year.

The department also touted a 14 percent drop in robberies so far this year. In addition, CPD has recovered over 1,900 guns in 2018, a 3 percent increase from last year.

“The progress we have seen in the first quarter of the year is a direct result of the hard work of our officers and the investments we have made to make CPD a better agency for everyone,” CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement. “Our work is far from over.”

Supt. Johnson said the department would continue its hiring plan while integrating more crime-fighting technology and expanding effort to build trust and partnerships within communities in the city.

The Latest
Despite the addition of some new characters (human and otherwise) the film comes across as a relatively uninspired and fairly forgettable chapter in the Monsterverse saga.
Unite Here Local 1, representing the workers at the Signature Room and its lounge, said in a lawsuit in October the employer failed to give 60 days notice of a closing or mass layoff, violating state law.
Uecker has been synonymous with Milwaukee baseball for over half a century.
Doctors say looking at the April 8 eclipse without approved solar glasses — which are many times darker than sunglasses — can lead to retinal burns and can result in blind spots and permanent vision loss.
Antoine Perteet, 33, targeted victims on the dating app Grindr, according to Chicago police.