DOWNTOWN — Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Division Supt. Larry Snelling are touting a decline in violent crime this yr in Chicago, a shift that comes as cities throughout the nation have seen a discount in homicides and different crimes since a post-pandemic spike.
Flanked by fellow mayors and police chiefs Monday morning at a Chicago assembly of the U.S. Convention of Mayors that targeted on public security, Johnson and Snelling broadly argued that metropolis and division initiatives — resembling a theft job drive launched final yr — have contributed to town reporting fewer crimes in most classes thus far in 2025.
Requested by a reporter to call insurance policies he believes have contributed to the decline in violent crime, Johnson on Monday didn’t record particular initiatives or packages. The mayor has beforehand pointed to a rise in youth hiring and enlargement of psychological well being assets below his administration as integral elements of his strategy to public security.
“What we’re experiencing in Chicago, which I feel is one thing that all the mayors have spoken of, you must create alternative and accountability,” Johnson stated. “Everyone agrees that we’re not going to police our solution to security, that we have now to ensure that we’re constructing reasonably priced properties, offering alternatives for younger folks, guaranteeing that there’s behavioral and psychological well being help providers, and that features our first responders, however it additionally requires us to have partnerships inside our communities.”
In comparison with final yr, homicides and shootings have fallen by 25 % and 31 %, respectively, from the start of 2025 via April 20, in accordance with police knowledge. Aggravated battery and motorcar thefts have additionally declined year-over-year.
Notably, Chicago has reported about 1,000 fewer robberies thus far in 2025 in comparison with 2024, in accordance with police knowledge printed via April 20.
That sharp decline comes after a post-pandemic spike in armed robberies plagued quite a few neighborhoods in 2023 and 2024, together with West City, Logan Sq. and different Northwest Aspect communities.
Final April, robberies had elevated nearly 30 % citywide year-over-year since 2021, with some police districts seeing much more dramatic will increase stemming partly from theft crews attacking a number of victims in consecutive incidents.
By means of April 21, 2024, Chicago reported 2,695 robberies citywide, which was about even with the identical interval in 2023.
However this yr, Chicago has seen a complete of 1,675 robberies via April 20, police knowledge exhibits. The primary three months of 2025 noticed the bottom variety of robberies for that very same interval over the previous 25 years, in accordance with a latest knowledge evaluation by WBEZ.
Snelling on Monday stated the latest decline is partly attributable to the work of the theft job drive, which deploys “focus missions” throughout town. He stated the group of devoted officers has been capable of depend on further “air help” from helicopters throughout chases, together with three new helicopters the division acquired final yr.
“It has made a serious impression. We make the most of them the easiest way that we are able to to ensure that when somebody commits a theft, a vehicular hijacking, then we name for air help,” he stated. “Officers do it on a regular basis. They pursue the automobile from the air. Our officers get to the placement and so they’re capable of make arrests below these circumstances.”
Whereas robberies are down citywide, some sprees proceed to happen in sure areas.
The police division on Monday warned neighbors a few string of robberies, burglaries and sexual assaults tied to the identical man since December in West Ridge.
And this winter, police stated a theft crew attacked greater than 20 folks in separate incidents over a month-long span in West City, Bucktown and Logan Sq.. A 16-year-old was later charged in reference to a number of of these crimes.
Burglaries have additionally seen an nearly 20 % decline citywide this yr via April 20, police stated, though some areas — such because the Morgan Park (twenty second) Police District on the Far South Aspect and the Lincoln (twentieth) Police District on the North Aspect — have seen will increase.
Final yr, quite a few companies spoke to Block Membership about dealing with repeated burglaries as a part of a dramatic surge happening throughout the North Aspect.
The City Corridor (nineteenth) Police District, which incorporates Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wrigleyville and elements of Lincoln Sq., reported 634 burglaries via Dec. 1, 2024 — essentially the most of any of town’s 22 police districts at that time within the yr, metropolis knowledge exhibits.
Up to now in 2025, robberies within the City Corridor district have fallen by 21 % in comparison with the identical interval final yr. However they’re nonetheless nearly 60 % increased than what was reported in 2021, police knowledge exhibits.
“Every district has to work with these companies to ensure that we maintain these down, and that’s what our district commanders are doing now,” Snelling stated Monday. “We’re truly going to have extra excessive visibility bike patrol issues on the market to assist maintain these issues down.”
Johnson and Snelling each took a number of questions Monday on the most recent proposal surrounding Chicago’s youth curfew in response to ongoing “teen takeovers” Downtown and elsewhere.
A compromise model of the proposed ordinance backed by Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) that’s now shifting via Metropolis Council would give police the ability to declare a “situational curfew” anytime, wherever all through town. Chicago’s present youth curfew begins at 10 p.m. for anybody 17 and below.
Johnson has lengthy been skeptical of amending the curfew, and wouldn’t say Monday if he would veto Hopkins’ ordinance if it does go — though he did name the measure a “step in the correct path” earlier this month.
Snelling additionally wouldn’t explicitly say if the amended proposal might be a useful gizmo for his officers.
“It relies upon. As soon as we see the completed product, it might be,” he stated. “I don’t need to provide you with a concrete reply proper now, till we have now a completed product.”
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