By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to freeze police hiring as part of an overall citywide hiring freeze is sure to be controversial. Violent crimes have been running at a six-year high for most of this year, and overall crimes are still running 40% higher than in base year 2019. The city is also on track to once again be the nation’s murder capital, the 13th year in a row.
It’s the city’s minorities, especially in Chicago’s south and west sides, that will be the most affected by the freeze. They suffer the overwhelming majority of the crime, as we’ve reported in detail, and any decrease in policing will likely hit them first.
Count on Johnson to face significant criticism for the freeze, particularly from the black community, after he spent hundreds of millions of dollars on illegal immigrants and ran up a budget deficit of more than $200 million this year. Now the mayor’s administration is searching for ways to cut spending and it’s the public’s safety that’s taking the hit.
What’s the current crime situation look like as the police hiring freeze is implemented?
Chicago’s major crimes this year as of September 1 are down 11% vs. 2023, but keep in mind that 2023 was a banner year for crime in the city. 2024 crimes are still running far higher compared to any other year from 2019 and 2022.
Most of the decline this year has been driven by a 24% drop in car thefts – 4,800 fewer. Regular theft is also down by 6% and robbery is down by over 8%. And there have been 37 fewer homicides so far this year, a 9% decline.
It’s good news that the city’s bloodshed has fallen, but as we’ve detailed in our homicide survey of America’s 75 largest cities, Chicago’s decline is far smaller than other cities. Homicides in Philadelphia are down a whopping 40% and New Orleans’ are down 39%. Chicago is still on track to have the nation’s most murders in 2024, which will mark the 13th-straight year the city has held the title of “nation’s murder capital.”
When compared to 2019 though, Chicagoans are still suffering a crime wave. Major crimes are up 40% vs. five years ago, driven largely by a 9,200 spike in car thefts. Murders are still up 20% and robberies 21%.
In fact, 2024 crimes are still running far higher compared to any other year between 2019 and 2022.
One quick note on the city’s violent crimes. By the end of July, Chicago was well on its way to setting a six-year high for violent crime this year, with murders, sexual assaults, robberies and aggravated batteries running 2% higher than last year.
But a big 34% drop in robberies in August – coinciding with the Democratic National Convention – reversed the trend. Overall violent crimes are now running 2% lower than they were last year.
Chicago may have just found a solution to its violent crime problem: give Chicago police the same mandate – and manpower – they had during the DNC.
But that won’t be easy to do. Not with a hiring freeze.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Does Chicago Public Schools CEO Martinez deserve praise for taking on Mayor Johnson?
- Mayor Johnson’s spending decisions, falling revenues mean Chicagoans likely to get hit with 2025 property tax hike
- It’s not racist to call Chicago the nation’s murder capital. The Chicago Sun-Times has 617 reasons to call it that.
- Illinois’ Gov. Pritzker delivers Democrats’ national economic pitch at DNC. A look at his own record is revealing.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Nothin but respect for CPD, tough job, especially these days.
Apparently, the hiring freeze does not include police according to source I just read. Also, firefighters are excluded. (10:00 PM Thursday)
Not only were more police officers deployed during the DNC which improved effectiveness, but I would bet there are statistical games being played with the crimes reported and crimes solved.
More police cant stop any of these problems, it just provides a force to come along and “clean up” afterwards. The justice system can’t stop any of these problems, it just provides a force to queue up the offenders and run them through a system that pretends to provide justice. Because the crime is due to spiritual (demonic) forces undermining the fabric of family and society. Truth is now whatever you identify it as, its no longer objective. Goodness is no longer measured against the highest standard, its now measured against laws that are also undermined. Example, you can steal… Read more »
There were over 2000 murders in Chicago last year and apparently that’s still not enough for the Mayor.
“over 2000”?!? Do you have a source on that?
He’s wrong.
627 was the final number of homicides in Chicago for the year 2023. Source, HEYJACKASS.COM, which is the most reliable and complete site to learn about violence and mayhem in the city.
Thanks, for a moment there I thought Chicago had a serious problem.
There is a good reason Chicago is still known as Chiraq!
The more crime in a city, the more police needed to stop crime. think of Mayberry with two police and no crime
Hilarious. No mention of laying off the 90% of dead weight which is government payrolls. Hmmm, let’s see why that might be. Cut back on fire and police and the simps and slaves which make up your city will fall in line and acquiesce to more taxes. You all must be CPS graduates in order to be this stupid.
When you pull the blue handle it goes bang bang!
Even with current 11,700 CPD officers, Chicago still has one of highest sworn officers per capita of any big city. CPD still has hundreds of sworn officers performing “administrative duties” and monitoring technology while other big cities are using non-sworn officer staff. One of Brandos campaign promises was that he was going to hire non-sworn personnel and put sworn officers back on beat, he’s done nothing. And still tons of RDO days, same with CFD——– All of which Furguson has written about in the past. CPD is a dysfunctional mess because its stuck with it’s contracts, no different than all… Read more »
In redeploying police officers he could easily reduce his own detail from 142 or 156 (have seen varying stats) to the same number Emmanuel had, which was 16-24 per reports. He could put 110-120 officers into neighborhoods that need such help. Not doing so is ironically his way of disinvesting, one of his favorite words. He could also reduce payroll in other departments and reallocate to hiring more cops, but, but, but…
For all you WP readers that don’t understand Dem logic, here is the simple formula.
Fewer police = Fewer arrests = Less crime
Not only that but when a person calls police to make a report of a theft, burglary etc there are no officers available to respond. The crime victims are told to call a non emergency phone number to file the report but when they get a busy signal or no answer they forget about filing and then there is no crime. The city and CPD have not filed crime statistics with the FBI for years so there is no way to compare.
There was much laughter from the left when DT’s campaign ad featured someone trying to get help from the police and was put on hold. Only the repeat offenders and Kim Foxx find it amusing now.