We haven't seen the official count yet as we're enjoying the last few days of our 13B. Supposedly, Chicago suffered a grand total of 4 fewer murders than last year.
- 2010 - 435
- 2011 - 431
After a year touting "double digit" crime reductions all over the media, the only number that matters was less than a 1% reduction. All the units being disbanded, the shuffling of administrative positions and elimination of spots, even the counting of recruits coming off probation as "officers" was used to justify all sorts of political shenanigans, and pretty much demonstrated exactly how little control the police have over idiots determined to kill one another.
Here's a conundrum though - crime statistics are usually expressed in terms of ".... per 100,000 people." Chicago lost 200,000 residents in the last census. So is it safe to assume that Chicago's homicide rate has actually been climbing? We're going to guess that the media is told to play up the "drop in the number of homicides" rather than the "homicide rate climbs."