At the Chicago Sun-Times Tom Schuba, Andy Grimm, Jesse Howe and Andy Boyle report that Chicago police activity has fallen to historic lows:
The police have made arrests in just 12% of crimes reported last year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis. That’s the lowest level since at least 2001, the first year the data was made publicly available.
The overall arrest rate peaked at nearly 31% in 2005 and has dropped steadily.
The decline in arrests mirrors a drop in nearly every category of police officers’ activity tracked by the Chicago Police Department. The numbers of traffic stops, tickets and investigative stops — in which pedestrians are patted down or searched by officers on the street — all have plummeted. The number of investigative stops dropped by more than half between 2019 and last year, falling from 155,000 citywide to 69,000.
And fewer crimes overall are getting reported — by victims and by the police, who used to produce many crime reports themselves while patrolling their beats.The slowdown amounts to a pullback by police officers as the city has experienced its most violent years in decades, a rise also seen in other major U.S. cities during the coronavirus pandemic and in the wake of the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Rank-and-file police who patrol the streets and even top brass say officers are doing less.
As I’ve pointed out before Chicago Emergency Management (911) reports that in more than 400,000 “serious” cases in which a timely police response could have reduced the harm police did not respond at all. It’s not that there’s less crime. It’s that less crime is being reported or responded to.
Here’s something else that’s interesting:
CPD’s budget isn’t going down. There are just fewer police officers.
They say that the “Ferguson effect” but I don’t think that’s the whole story. This is what happens when an organization is thoroughly demoralized. I recall when TeleType was folding, the few remaining souls walked the hallways with glazed expressions on their faces.
†This is what happens when an organization is thoroughly demoralized.â€
“Demoralization†seems to be pervasive in the institutions, departments, and anyone effected by the Biden Administration’s policies – Border Patrol, ICE, police, all 3 branches of the military, and many of us in this country.
Demoralized is the word I’ve been looking for.
It’s seems like the first thing Biden ordered was the flag at half-staff and so often It’s a waste of time to put it all the way back up.
Who do you think you are fooling, Dave? All the crime is actually in Grayslake, Bartlett and Crete.
Steve told me so.
Separately, speaking of legalities. The complaint filed against Musk by Twitter is an interesting read. Its 62 pages but can actually be easily skimmed for the key points.
It started a long time ago so kudos to Biden for harming the CPD while a senator. The reduction in non sworn officers is most notable. With Chicago losing people has the number of officers per capita changed that much? Anyway, it looks like a poorly performing group for a long time with a recent inflection point. At least you are paying them a lot more.
Steve
There is no point in arresting someone if the DA won’t prosecute. Enjoy the donuts. Put in your 20 or 30. And move to Florida or Texas.
steve, I don’t blame Biden for the situation. The word “Biden” does not appear in my post. I do blame Chicago’s political leadership, especially the mayor and Cook County States Attorney.
Mayor Lightfoot has been a terrible disappointment and many of those who voted for her election are saying the same thing. Does anybody seriously think that Toni Preckwinkle would have done a better job? That highlights the point I have made about why I don’t blame the voters. In the primaries I voted for the most heterodox candidate as did many black Chicagoans.
Kim Foxx is doing exactly what I expected which is why I didn’t vote for her in the first place.
Didn’t the ACLU sue the city about ten years ago for not policing (slow response time) to disadvantaged neighborhoods?
A few months ago a local cop’s anonymous twitter account was uncovered by our local “undernews.” The newspaper re-reported it as anti-black cop rants, which somehow understated it. He wishes all of the Jews were dead, believes Hitler did nothing wrong and considers himself a Holocaust denier. His comments about blacks (spelled with a q) were paternalistic in comparison. For example, he believed homosexuality is rampant among blacks because of absentee fathers. And he doesn’t ticket blacks if he can help it because it’s unfair to expect them to meet white standards and they can’t pay the fine anyway.
This is my understanding of a racist cop. He’s not policing. He’s waiting for the pension to fully vest, a day which will never come now.
I can’t keep track. The ACLU of Illinois is always suing the CPD over something.
PD- There is no such thing as racism. Ask Drew and jan.
Dave- I get that, but the first comment on your chart was blaming Biden. Its clearly a long term problem. There was an inflection downward but that was also before Biden was POTUS (but notice he gets the blame and not the guy who actually was POTUS). This clearly of a long term problem suggests long term management issues. If my staff had that kind of performance I would have been fired years ago, along with the staff. When its that bad it is not just management. In any other area of government there would have been large scale changes. Police seem to be immune to almost everything.
Steve
Since the only thing people care about is homicides link goes to homicides per year in Chicago. If police dont arrest anyone but you dont have crime who cares? Anyway, while arrests are dropping homicides stay pretty steady. If the increase is a Ferguson effect then you expect a bump in 2015. There is one but it is small. The big bump is in 2016, shortly after the Laquan McDonald tape went live. They drop quickly (2019 was much lower than 2003) after that then another big jump in 2020, after Floyd. May not be causal but a strong correlation between police killing unarmed black people and lying about it and an increase in homicides. A lot better than the decrease in arrests.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homicides-data-tracker-20220426-iedehzuq5jdofbhwt3v2w6cjoy-story.html
Steve
“PD- There is no such thing as racism. Ask Drew and jan.”
Care to produce a quote to that effect, steve. Or are you resorting to your primary debating tactic: lying.