At a public safety forum last month, Chicago’s police chief vastly exaggerated the number of murders his department’s detectives solved in January, touting to residents that the clearance rate was 76%.
“Of the 25 murders we’ve had this year, 19 of them have already been cleared,” Superintendent Larry Snelling told West Side residents at a Jan. 30 forum, according to the newspaper. Chicago Sun-Times.
The next day, he told the Economic Club of Chicago that 20 of the 26 murders reported in the past 30 days had been solved, the paper said.
When asked about that number, he told group members that all 20 cases solved resulted in arrests and charges, the paper reported.
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Superintendent Larry Snelling (center) has been with the Chicago Police Department for 28 years and previously served as the department’s counterterrorism chief. (John J. Kim/Chicago Sun-Times)
But last Friday, the department released figures showing that only three homicides reported in 2024 will be solved.
“This was a miscommunication on my part and I take responsibility for it,” Snelling said in a statement. “My purpose in discussing these cases was to draw attention to the victims and communities who suffer the trauma of violence. Nothing should overshadow the great work that the Bureau of Investigation is doing for their families.” ”
Snelling’s numbers seem to be mixed up – there were indeed 19 murders cleared in 2024, but 16 of the solved cases stemmed from cases from the previous year.
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Superintendent Larry Snelling admitted last month that his department had inflated its homicide clearance rate. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
A police spokesperson also told the media that Mr Snelling’s error had been “corrected internally and has been corrected”.
It is unclear whether any of these solved cases resulted in arrests or charges.
The Sun-Times reports that if the suspect is dead, if police believe they know the perpetrator but do not arrest them, or if prosecutors decline to file charges against the suspect; Detectives can solve cases “in exceptional cases,” he said.
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Snelling said his error “should not overshadow the great work the Bureau is doing to bring justice to victims and some closure to their families.” (Beata Saursel/Nurfoto)
In 2021, Chicago police made arrests in about half of the 400 murders they solved that year, and 397 murders went unsolved, according to the newspaper.
At the time, then-Superintendent David Brown frequently noted that his department had “cleared” more homicides that year than at any time in 20 years. The Sun-Times previously reported.
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Chicago saw a 12.9% decrease in homicides in 2023 compared to the previous year. Fox 32 reported. According to the department’s data, detectives solved 319 of 617 cases in 2023. In 2022, 709 murders were recorded.
