CHICAGO – Supt. David Brown held CPD’s annual year-end crime press conference on Thursday from police headquarters.
In the remarks, he acknowledged the good, bad and ugly when it comes to safety and violence in Chicago.
As of Thursday, there have been 794 homicides in the city – compared to 770 last year. The department said shootings are up nearly nine percent and 76 officers have been shot or shot at in 2021.
In the midst of one of the most violent years in the history of Chicago, there were improvements.
CPD seized more than 12,000 illegal guns, which Brown said was a department record. The homicide clearance rate was around 50 percent, CPD said.
Brown went on to say tackling the illegal gun pipeline into Chicago and getting firearms off the streets remains top priorities for law enforcement.
“We’re in a gun crisis, so taking guns off the streets is the top line metric we have,” Brown said. “To continue focusing on and they have done an extraordinary job.”
As carjackings continued to skyrocket since the pandemic, Brown said CPD increased its carjacking arrests 40 percent from last year.
Police will be out downtown this weekend as the city prepares for one of its biggest New Year’s Eve fireworks shows in history on Friday night.