Chicago's High Unsolved Murder Rate Worsened By Uncooperative Communities
CHICAGO (CBS)--Chicago's crime problem is made worse when murders like the wave that gripped Chicago last weekend go unsolved.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports that while other big U.S. cities have shown improvement in arrests, Chicago lags behind.
Two years ago, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced plans to hire 200 new detectives to help solve the city's soaring number of murders.
help solve murders.
"We need to do everything we can to reduce gun violence," Johnson said.
So far, the addition to the police force hasn't helped.
Back in 2000, the city solved 40 percent of murders that occurred that year. In 2009, 30 percent of murders were solved.
Last year, 17 percent were solved, Blakley reports.
Other cities like Washington, D.C., have improved the arrest rates of murderers.
The homicide clearance rate in D.C. doubled over a 20-year period, by 32 percent in 1995 to 77 percent in 2015.
"There was a three year period it was in the 80 (percentile)," said George Kucik, former D.C. Deputy Police Chief.
The improvements began under former Chicago cop Charles Ramsay, who later became Washington D.C.'s police chief in 1998.
In D.C., he brought his laser-sharp focus on solving homicides coupled with a strict promotion policy, Blakley reports.
By investigating every murder scene with a team of detectives with specific duties being directed by a top police official who showed up to every crime scene, Ramsay found success.
"When a command official's there, it shows a sense of urgency and the command official is able to get the resources necessary to further that investigation," Kucik said.
Critics say the main problem that exists in Chicago is a lack of cooperation from the communities affected by the shootings.
"Relations between police and folks in the chicago communities have become so fractured and so strained that there's a fundamental breakdown--an absolute mistrust," said Locke Bowman of Northwestern University Law School.
A Freedom of Information Act Request for Chicago's murder clearance rates filed by CBS 2 Chicago is still pending.
