Chicago Crime Dropped In 2018, But Crime Is Up In Some Neighborhoods
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Crime in Chicago dropped in 2018, with 100 fewer murders than 2017 and an eight percent drop in criminal complaints, police say. But not all neighborhoods are experiencing those successes.
To battle crime, Chicago police have worked to strengthen community partnerships and invest in data driven policing, and they're quick to point to statistical those successes.
But in the 25th Police District, home to neighborhoods like Hermosa and Hanson Park, it leads the city with a 23 percent drop in crime reports, to 2759 cases.
The regulars at Tigrillos Barber Shop take note.
"We were feeling good, everyone was saying around here it was good and getting better a lot," said Orlando Garcia, a barber at Tigrillos.
In the district shooting incidents alone this past year were down 36 percent to 107 reported cases.
Last fall 21-year-old Maira Coronal was shot twice in the head while trick or treating with family, a single incident challenging any sense of calm.
It stands vacant now, but a year ago a mobile phone store in the West Side's 11th District was the scene of a shootout where an armed owner defended those inside during a robbery at gunpoint.
There crime is up 5 percent to a troubling 3553 cases.
This year registered 70 murders, a three percent increase.
Basil Ajaj, who closed the mobile phone store, has been in the area for 14 years. But Ajaj still runs the 3 Star Food Mart at the other end of the block.
"There used to be more stores in the area, but they closed down," he said.
Ajaj sits behind a bulletproof glass decorated with pictures of customers' children, all thankful he remains in spit of challenges.
"They tell me, like, 'I don't know what we going to do if you were not on this block or this corner,'" he said.
In spite of some crime increases, the 11th district is among the top districts for gun seizures, which is a major focus of new efforts from Chicago police. In the past year CPD took 9,500 illegal guns off the streets -- that's a 9 percent increase over the previous year.
