One detective’s work demonstrates how CPD improved the homicide clearance rate – Chicago Tribune/Yahoo

CPD’s homicide clearance rate reached 71 percent last year — up from 55 percent in 2024 — amid a sharp decline in murders that helped buoy the figure. Records obtained by the Tribune show CPD detectives cleared fewer cases in 2025 — 296 — than in any year since 2019. That means detectives effectively cleared cases among a smaller number of homicides, and continued to count the clearance of older cases in the department’s newest figure. In fact, of the cases cleared last year, records show more than 60 percent of them originated in years prior to 2025, the oldest being from 1987.