Crime & Law
Public Safety, Violence Intervention Leaders React to Homicide Decline in Chicago
Chicago saw an overall reduction in violent crime in 2025. Last year, 417 people were killed in homicides, down nearly 30% from the previous year and a 60-year low, according to the city’s violence reduction dashboard.
The decline in violent crime echoes a nationwide trend; however, more work lies ahead in preventing shootings and in saving lives, according to stakeholders working to reduce violent crime and provide needed support to victims and their families.
“There are many people in our communities on the South and West Side of Chicago who may not necessarily feel the numbers that are being reported,” said the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director of Live Free Illinois.
The organization helped advocate for the Homicide Data Transparency Act, which requires law enforcement agencies in Illinois to publish routine data and investigations on homicides, with the ultimate goal of improving homicide solve rates and helping families get closure.
Eddie Bocanegra, former senior advisor to the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, supported the work of community violence intervention (CVI) across the country in his previous role, a position he had for more than three years.
Bocanegra left the Department of Justice following federal cuts to CVI programs last year.
“We saw stronger relations between CVI organizations and law enforcement,” Bocanegra said about his time working at the Department of Justice. “There are also organizations, besides CVI organizations, that are coming together to provide more of the wraparound services.”
“Chicago, by far, has the deepest investments in CVI,” Bocanegra continued.
Andy Wheeler, interim co-director of trauma recovery and injury prevention at Stroger Hospital at Cook County Health, said he has noticed a “more manageable" difference in the past year at the hospital compared to the surge in violence seen during the pandemic, which he said was taxing on hospital staff and communities.
The number of homicides last year in Chicago was a nearly 50% decline from the COVID-era high of 805 homicides in 2021, according to the city’s violence reduction dashboard.
When shooting victims come to the hospital, Wheeler said, a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, respiratory techs and X-ray techs all come together to try to keep the person alive. The hospital also provides wraparound care through a trauma recovery and intervention program, which involves a social worker helping connect survivors with mental health care and social services.
“It’s a shift away from a moral judgment or thinking that you can incarcerate your way out of the problem, and using a public health approach,” Wheeler said. “We understand that somebody who’s a victim of gun violence is at very high risk of being injured again, injuring somebody else or being incarcerated, and so you tailor your interventions to mitigate that risk.”
Garien Gatewood, Chicago’s deputy mayor of community safety, said the decline in violent crime comes from a variety of factors such as improving housing, holding people accountable who cause harm, and creating more resources for youth and adult jobs.
“I think the work that’s happening across the city of Chicago can be replicated in other parts of the country,” Gatewood said. “It’s not a single policy. It is literally everyone working together to drive violence down throughout the city.”
Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
