In a single three-month summer period in Chicago, 1,606 people were shot. That’s the population equivalent to many American small towns. They are numbers — and more significantly, lives — that have become part of a grimly familiar dynamic in the city.

The number of shootings and homicides in 2021 continues to outpace 2020’s rates, as Chicago has now seen 2,726 shootings and 616 homicides through the first nine months of the year.

Sixty people were shot, eight fatally, in 46 separate shooting incidents across Chicago over the weekend, according to the Chicago Police Department. Among the victims was a CPD officer who was wounded in a triple shooting late Friday.

Some Chicago public schools will retain their resource officers, following a split vote by the Board of Education to approve a one-year, $11 million contract with the Chicago Police Department.

Safety officials are reminding Chicagoans that even if it still feels like summer, the lakefront’s beaches are now closed for the season to swimming, with lifeguards no longer present along the shoreline. So far in 2021, 38 people have drowned in Lake Michigan.

The Board of Education will vote this week on a one-year, $11 million extension to continue its school resource officer program despite an ongoing push from some students and advocates to have police removed from schools.

A 27-year-old tow truck driver who was was attempting to provide service in the 100 block of West 57th Street was among those fatally shot over the weekend. According to police, there were 45 separate shooting incidents between 6 p.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

A Cook County judge has ordered Nathaniel Butler Sr. to be held without bail following his arrest in connection to the killing of 35-year-old Jerome Jenkins. That ruling came a day after Butler’s two sons were also held without bail.

In a follow-up to its June 2020 report, the Chicago Office of Inspector General on Thursday found the CPD still cannot ensure it is producing all relevant records in its possession for criminal and civil litigation.

It took more than four years to negotiate a new deal with the police union, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot demanded changes to the way officers are investigated after a 2017 probe by the U.S. Department of Justice found police officers routinely violated the civil rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans.

A Chicago police sergeant who says he blew the whistle on a superior who was using department resources to protect his own home during the height of last year’s unrest now claims he has been retaliated against for reporting the misconduct.

Officials are asking for the community’s help in identifying a suspect wanted for a possible hate crime after the man allegedly struck a victim in the head at a CTA Red Line station on the North Side last month.

A police union contract years in the making heads to city council Tuesday. We talk with alderpeople about that and other city business.

Armando Serrano and Jose Montanez, who were released in 2016 after serving 23 years in prison for the murder of Rodrigo Vargas, would each get $10.25 million if the settlement is approved by the City Council on Tuesday. 

At least 60 people were shot in 40 shooting incidents across the city between Friday evening and 11:59 p.m. Sunday. That included a pair of mass shootings and the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Kaden Ingram.

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown on Friday announced that officers serving on the department’s Community Safety Team will be moved into new units centered on gang investigations, homicides, carjackings and narcotics.