By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Traumatizing robberies and violent crime continue to go up in Chicago. Robberies, in particular, are driving Chicago’s reputation for crime. The city is still suffering a spree that began last year, with total robberies as of April 24 up 2% over the same date in 2023. That’s on top of a 23% jump in full-year 2023 robberies over 2022. The crimes are increasingly painful.
A 68-year-old grandmother on a late Sunday morning stroll in the sun was dragged, beaten and robbed on Linden near Montrose. She was part of a series of attacks that have left half a dozen people injured, according to WGN.
Another 66-year-old woman in Streeterville was dragged to the ground by a group of men during their 45-minute, 11-victim robbery spree
Armed robbers fired at least one shot as they committed a pair of holdups in a high-traffic neighborhood in the West Loop this past weekend.
It’s those kinds of crimes in neighborhoods perceived as safe, sometimes taking place in broad daylight, that’s driving increased fear among Chicagoans and suburbanites.
The total number of violent crimes as of April 21, now exceeds 5,100 as both robberies and aggravated batteries outpace the previous five years. Murders are down 10% this year compared to the same period last year (142 vs. 157), while criminal sexual assaults are down 5%.
Already, robberies this year are running ahead of last year and the four years prior. The question is whether this year will follow the massive spike that occurred last summer, when monthly robberies jumped more than 50% in a few months.
Chicago’s reputation among big cities is well deserved – it has the highest robbery rate among all of them. Last year Chicago suffered 415 robberies per 100,000 residents, double that of New York and Los Angeles. That’s based on each city’s individual CompStat report or crime databases.
Expect city officials and some in the media to hype the fact that overall major crimes in Chicago are down 12% so far this year, driven overwhelmingly by a drop in car thefts.
But the overall crime decrease comes after hitting a five-year high in 2023. Overall major crimes this year are still up 38% over the same period in 2019.
And Chicago still led the nation for most homicides in 2023 – the twelfth year in a row.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Weekly Crime Tracker
- Chicago’s crime numbers must have DNC organizers sweating
- Chicago criminals out on probation/parole/pretrial release continue violence in 2024
- Jail populations shrink, electronic monitoring drops and appeals opposing detention orders ‘skyrocket’: Three concerns about impact of Illinois’ no-cash bail law
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the failures of Mayor Johnson’s first year in office, what Chicago’s future looks like, why so many CPS teachers are chronically absent, the details of Gov. Pritzker’s $827 million giveaway to Rivian, and more.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 5/12/2024.
The handbag manufacturers are just as guilty a Hyundai and Kia for making their products easy to steal. Someone should sue.
You have the freedom to leave Chiraq.
If you choose to stay then you will pay.
Closed my office in the Loop 3 months ago. Couldn’t be happier.
These neighborhoods are NOT traumatized. I would hazard to guess every single victim voted for exactly what they got. And they still haven’t learned. How many people are being killed or robbed and yet the voters in that district, still blame everyone and everything else, except themselves who are the real problem. You can’t fix stupid.
Little discussed, but significant number of Chicago’s white-collar professionals, the so-called silent majority of north-side tax-payers, are one mugging or carjacking away from moving-out of city. People are scared, for their children’s safety, for their spouses’ and families’ safety, for their own safety, whether day or night, busy street or quiet alley.
Yep Street, even Bowmanville is becoming sketchy.
So murder has gone down by a whopping 10% in a single year but robbery has gone up by 2%? It’s as though people are less violent but more financially desperate. I’m curious by what metric you figured out that “the crimes are increasingly painful.” Personally, I’d be in more pain if I was murdered. Also, I’m surprised to not see assault statistics in an article about a rise in violent crime. Have they gotten better or worse? And how do these numbers compare to Chicago crime statistics two or three decades ago? A four-year range doesn’t quite answer all… Read more »
“Murder is down”, but only because major trauma medical-care in Chicago’s ER trauma units has dramatically improved. Shirley Ryan Ability Lab gets fair amount of Chicago gunshot victims requiring in-residence rehabilitation, but the grievous bodily-harm does get counted in the crime statistics trumpeted as “crime is down”.
In 1991 there were 14,000 gunshot wounds.
I can’t remember exactly but in 2023 there were 2,500 gunshot wounds.
At that same pace we’d have thousands of murders here.
The problem is more powerful guns.
I’d like to you to take those numbers I just gave you and spin that
The fact that they leave out the most important metric of crime in Chicago tells you how absolutely corrupt these people are.
Why do you want to compare to statistics from 30 years ago? Because the situation might be better than 30 years ago, even though it is worse than 5 years ago?
I don’t know about you, but when something gets fixed, I expect it to stay fixed. If it breaks again, I don’t feel better because of how it was 30 years ago.
See, the is why Shotspotter has to go, it’s traumatizing criminals and speeding emergency help where it’s needed. Can’t have that!
Chicsgoans, you voted for it and you got it!
This is a great primer on street crime from the perspective of criminals.
https://youtu.be/DJA7jDF7bLE?feature=shared