Despite recording more than 570 homicides in 2024, Chicago saw signs of improvement, with that total marking the third consecutive year the city recorded fewer killings than the one prior. This was the first year since the COVID-19 pandemic that the city had fewer than 600 slayings before the turn of the calendar. The official figure was 571 just before Christmas. Chicago saw a 7% overall decrease in murders and nonfatal shootings in 2024, a year marked by the Democratic National Convention and another annual uptick in summer gun violence. Each of the five police patrol areas — clusters of districts that blanket the city — saw a reduction in killings year-over-year. “It’s not even just the homicides, but the number of people who have been traumatized by gun violence,” Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, entering his second full year as head of the department, told the Chicago Tribune.
He added, “The benchmark for me is to get as much control on gun violence and violent offenders as humanly possible, getting them behind bars and getting them held, repeat offenders, and putting a stop to their violent behavior.” Police reported large decreases in robberies and motor vehicle thefts, though the latter remain well above pre-pandemic levels. Mayor Brandon Johnson says a goal for 2025 is to get the city below 500 murders. The police budget, not including overtime, will surpass $2 billion next year. More than 12,000 guns were recovered throughout the year. Officers made more than 33,000 arrests on the year, a slight increase from 2023. The police department continued its slog toward compliance with a federal consent decree. The independent monitoring team that assesses the city’s adherence found the police department, as of June, had reached “operational compliance” with 9% of its consent decree requirements. Secondary compliance was reached in 37% of monitorable paragraphs in the first half of this year, up from 35% in the last period.