Chicago Police say the city was less violent in the first six months of 2019 than during the same period in each of the previous three years.
Department officials said Monday that there have been 236 homicides so far this year. That's 21 fewer than the same period last year and 97 fewer than the first six months of 2017. The number of shooting incidents fell below the 1,000 mark for the first time for the period in the last four years. The department also says the numbers of robberies and burglaries are the lowest they've been in two decades.
Chicago still records far more homicides than New York or Los Angeles, but the department hopes that the hiring of 1,000 new officers in recent years and expansion of high-tech crime fighting tools such as gunshot detection technology will bring down the numbers more.