City murder tally up - Chicago police blame gangs for increase after 4 years of decline
City murder tally up - Chicago police blame gangs for increase after 4 years of decline
By David Heinzmann
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published January 2, 2007
A drug-fueled feud on the West Side contributed to a slight rise in the number of homicides in Chicago in 2006 after four years of declining murders that included a 25 percent drop in 2004.
By Monday afternoon, police had counted 466 murders in the city in 2006, roughly a 4 percent increase over 2005's 40-year low of 447, according to police statistics.
The increase was largely due to gang conflicts, including a bloody West Side struggle that claimed 19 lives over the course of 2006, said Police Supt. Philip Cline.
For instance, violence in the Harrison District on the West Side edged back up last year, after dropping dramatically since mid-2003, when the Police Department made sweeping changes in its strategies for combating gangs.
The district, which includes East and West Garfield Park, North Lawndale and part of Austin, has entrenched social problems that lead to violence, police and experts say. The area has a high proportion of ex-convicts, deeply rooted gang networks dominated by the Vice Lords, and rampant narcotics dealing.
In October, police who were tailing a suspected gang hit squad got into a shootout on the West Side, killing two men and wounding a third. Police said the group of New Breed gang members, along with rival Vice Lords, had committed 19 murders in Harrison and the neighboring Marquette District as the gangs squabbled over drug turf.
One of the biggest challenges for police and for the city is coping with tens of thousands of ex-convicts who are paroled back to the city every year and rejoin the narcotics trade, Cline said.
"We get 20,000 people a year back to the city of Chicago, and unfortunately if they don't find jobs, that's what they're going to go back to," Cline said.
At the beginning of the decade, the number of murders in Chicago began to sound alarms and draw national attention. Although many smaller cities had higher rates--the number of murders per 1,000 residents--Chicago had the highest totals in the country in 2001 and 2003.
The number of murders began to decline in mid-2003 as Chicago put new focus on the problem, adopting policing strategies used in New York and Boston.
The current approach puts a premium on analyzing crime data to redeploy police to hot spots while holding commanders accountable for violence in their areas. Commanders and top brass continue to meet every Friday afternoon at headquarters to review how the department is doing with violent areas and to plan upcoming moves.
Chicago police say this strategy has been the cornerstone of the dramatic drop in murders from roughly 650 a few years ago. Experts applaud the strategy, saying any effort that defuses a gang conflict can prevent a spiral of violence.
While last year's increase in murders troubled Cline, he said he was encouraged by continued decreases in other categories of serious crime.
As the rate of reported violent crime grew slightly nationwide--by about 3 percent--Chicago's rate of violent crime, an index that includes robberies, batteries and sexual assaults, decreased by about the same percentage, Cline pointed out.
He also was heartened that the murder total has remained under 500 for three years in a row. For decades Chicago had more than 600 murders every year.
In the first 11 months of the year, reports of aggravated assault and battery were down 4.5 percent and robberies were about the same, down by less than 1 percent, according to police statistics.
Cline stressed that the department is continuing to focus on disrupting gang-run drug markets on street corners. Open-air drug dealing leads to turf disputes among gangs that often turn violent. Gang violence accounts for at least half of the murders in the city, police say.
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dheinzmann@tribune.com
By David Heinzmann
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Published January 2, 2007
A drug-fueled feud on the West Side contributed to a slight rise in the number of homicides in Chicago in 2006 after four years of declining murders that included a 25 percent drop in 2004.
By Monday afternoon, police had counted 466 murders in the city in 2006, roughly a 4 percent increase over 2005's 40-year low of 447, according to police statistics.
The increase was largely due to gang conflicts, including a bloody West Side struggle that claimed 19 lives over the course of 2006, said Police Supt. Philip Cline.
For instance, violence in the Harrison District on the West Side edged back up last year, after dropping dramatically since mid-2003, when the Police Department made sweeping changes in its strategies for combating gangs.
The district, which includes East and West Garfield Park, North Lawndale and part of Austin, has entrenched social problems that lead to violence, police and experts say. The area has a high proportion of ex-convicts, deeply rooted gang networks dominated by the Vice Lords, and rampant narcotics dealing.
In October, police who were tailing a suspected gang hit squad got into a shootout on the West Side, killing two men and wounding a third. Police said the group of New Breed gang members, along with rival Vice Lords, had committed 19 murders in Harrison and the neighboring Marquette District as the gangs squabbled over drug turf.
One of the biggest challenges for police and for the city is coping with tens of thousands of ex-convicts who are paroled back to the city every year and rejoin the narcotics trade, Cline said.
"We get 20,000 people a year back to the city of Chicago, and unfortunately if they don't find jobs, that's what they're going to go back to," Cline said.
At the beginning of the decade, the number of murders in Chicago began to sound alarms and draw national attention. Although many smaller cities had higher rates--the number of murders per 1,000 residents--Chicago had the highest totals in the country in 2001 and 2003.
The number of murders began to decline in mid-2003 as Chicago put new focus on the problem, adopting policing strategies used in New York and Boston.
The current approach puts a premium on analyzing crime data to redeploy police to hot spots while holding commanders accountable for violence in their areas. Commanders and top brass continue to meet every Friday afternoon at headquarters to review how the department is doing with violent areas and to plan upcoming moves.
Chicago police say this strategy has been the cornerstone of the dramatic drop in murders from roughly 650 a few years ago. Experts applaud the strategy, saying any effort that defuses a gang conflict can prevent a spiral of violence.
While last year's increase in murders troubled Cline, he said he was encouraged by continued decreases in other categories of serious crime.
As the rate of reported violent crime grew slightly nationwide--by about 3 percent--Chicago's rate of violent crime, an index that includes robberies, batteries and sexual assaults, decreased by about the same percentage, Cline pointed out.
He also was heartened that the murder total has remained under 500 for three years in a row. For decades Chicago had more than 600 murders every year.
In the first 11 months of the year, reports of aggravated assault and battery were down 4.5 percent and robberies were about the same, down by less than 1 percent, according to police statistics.
Cline stressed that the department is continuing to focus on disrupting gang-run drug markets on street corners. Open-air drug dealing leads to turf disputes among gangs that often turn violent. Gang violence accounts for at least half of the murders in the city, police say.
----------
dheinzmann@tribune.com
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 8:44 AM
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