BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor
A WBEZ investigation released on Monday examined the declining number of murder cases closed by Chicago Police over the past 25 years.
Since 1990, the number of murder cases closed in the same year the killing happened fell from nearly 70 percent to below 30 percent. With the mayoral election just two weeks away, there has been a renewed interest on the yearly murders totals — and subsequent arrests — since Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office in 2011.
Since the early 1990s, Chicago has seen a steady decline in murders. Yale sociologist Andrew Papachristos noted that the decline in crime in Chicago is in line with the national Great Crime Decline that has spanned more than 20 years.
While the total number of killings have declined, the WBEZ story shows that police are also closing a smaller percentage of those slayings.
While a majority of the decline in murder cases closed occurred during Mayor Richard M. Daley’s tenure, the WBEZ analysis shows it reached the lowest point in 25 years in 2012. WBEZ also notes the number of Chicago Police detectives, evidence technicians and forensic investigators have declined by at least 19 percent since Emanuel took office.