Murders and shootings reported last month in Chicago were down from February 2018, according to data collected by Chicago police.
The 23 murders reported in February was a 40 percent decline from the same month last year, while the number of shootings decreased by 7 percent, Chicago police said in a news release on Thursday.
So far in 2019, 44 murders were recorded in Chicago — almost half of the combined total from January and February 2018, police said. The number of shootings came in at 214, showing a decrease of slightly under a quarter.
The Sun-Times has counted 47 homicides this year within city limits.
“Crime data for February provides strong evidence that the Chicago Police Department is on the right path,” Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said. “CPD’s combined approach of adding manpower and new technology along with doubling down on building neighborhood partnerships is working.”
Meanwhile, over 1,600 illegal guns were seized by officers in 2019, police said. That’s a minor increase from the same period last year.
Other crimes — robberies, burglaries and vehicle thefts — were at a nearly 20-year low, police said.
Throughout February, 95 additional CPD officers were deployed onto the streets, most of them on the South and West sides, police said. New centers decked out with live security-camera video feeds and gunshot-detection systems also debuted in the 20th and 22nd police districts.
