Solve the Fucking Murders

In 2017, Chicago experienced 650 murders. CPD cleared 17% clearance of those murders.

In 2017 NYC experienced 269 murders. NYPD cleared 77% of those murders.

CPD and NYPD have similar budgets per capita ($400-600 per city resident). They employ similar numbers of officers per resident (~4.4 and ~5.2 officers per thousand, respectively).

And in absolute terms CPD solved HALF as many murders as NYPD did.

A lot of this is resource disparities. I'm going to be sloppy and just divide overall department budgets by the murders. It's my blog - you can't stop me!

NYPD's budget is ~ 5.6 billion. That's $20 million per murder, and $27 million per solved murder.

CPD's budget is ~1.5 billion. That's ~$2.3 million per murder and $14 million per solved murder.

But here's the thing - the whole police department ins't dedicated to solving murders. Resources can be shifted around, things can be reprioritized (e.g. minimal investigation of non-violent crime.). CPD can do their jobs more effectively.

And frankly, budgets can be increased - and spending that brings down the homicide rate is almost certainly a good deal for the city because of how much money murders cost. That study estimated that the tangible costs alone of each murder at $1.2 million - so 650 homicides is HALF the entire budget of CPD. Add in intangible costs and Chicago homicides are costing society more than the entire city budget. Even if you think that those intangible estimates are too high, its still a huge number.

So what does this lead me to think?

1) Chicago should commit more resources to law enforcement - especially solving murders.

2) CPD needs to get their shit together, embrace reform and innovation, and commit do doing whatever it takes for them to solve the fucking murders.