Chicago records fewest killings since 1965, despite Trump's attacks against the city

In a year when President Donald Trump called Chicago the “most dangerous city in the world” and launched an aggressive deportation campaign, citywide killings ultimately fell to a 60-year low as overall crime continued to drop.

The number of murders in Chicago decreased from 587 in 2024 to 416 last year, a nearly 30% drop, according to Chicago police data. It’s the lowest total since 1965 and the first time in a decade the city has had fewer than 500 slayings in a year.

Crime has been declining in Chicago after it peaked during the pandemic in 2021.

As of Dec. 28, shootings had fallen 35% from 2024, robberies were down 36% and aggravated batteries had dipped 11%, police data shows.

Still, Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged “there’s a lot more work for us to do.”

“We’re not patting ourselves on the back yet,” Johnson said in an interview. “But we are certainly grateful for moving toward this positive trend.”

‘You’re seeing it across cities’

The decline in overall crime was also seen in other U.S. cities with similar murder rates to Chicago, such as Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia, according to a University of Chicago Crime Lab report.

The driving factors for the reduction “can’t be an explanation that’s specific to Chicago or … to some new Chicago policy that’s focused on a particular type of crime,” said Jens Ludwig, the crime lab’s executive director.

“You’re seeing it across the board for lots of different types of violence, you’re seeing it across neighborhoods, you’re seeing it across cities,” Ludwig added.

He said a large infusion of pandemic stimulus funding, some of which went to violence prevention organizations, could be having an impact. If that’s the case, “We’ve got to be really nervous about what’s coming next,” Ludwig said, because that extra funding runs out next year.

With the city’s finances in a precarious position, Mayor Johnson said Chicago needs “sustainable revenue sources” and will look to Springfield and philanthropists to secure funding for any programs impacted by shortfalls and cuts in 2026.

“There are enough billionaires and millionaires in Illinois to fund all of these programs,” said Johnson, whose previous efforts to tax the rich and large corporations pushed City Council members to pass their own budget last year.

Trump administration takes credit

Chicago’s intractable crime was thrust into the spotlight again over the summer, when Trump called the city a “killing field” and a “disaster” in need of cleaning up.

He eventually sent in the National Guard, as he has in other cities, but a federal judge blocked the deployment, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to keep that order in place last month. 

Trump on Wednesday announced that he was removing National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland while falsely claiming that their presence alone had "greatly reduced" crime. Troops showed up at an immigration detention center in suburban Chicago in October, but they weren't able to hit the street before their deployment was blocked.

"We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!" he wrote on his social media platform.

Trump’s administration also ordered the controversial deportation campaign that brought scores of heavily armed federal agents to the Chicago area and generated thousands of arrests. The administration claimed it was launched to target “criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois.”

However, most people detained during the first half of the campaign, dubbed Operation Midway Blitz, reportedly had no criminal record.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security linked the operation to a drop in crime, but critics have noted that crime was decreasing long before the ramped-up enforcement. The White House didn’t respond to questions.

Despite the trend, jarring public attacks drew national attention this year, adding to the perception that Chicago is a hotbed for crime.

A woman was set ablaze while riding a CTA Blue Line train through the Loop in mid-November, leading to federal terrorism charges against a man with a long history of arrests and mental illness. Days later, a 14-year-old boy was killed and eight other teenagers were wounded in shootings that erupted downtown, shortly after the Christmas tree lighting in Millennium Park.

Trump seized on both crimes and held himself up as the solution to Chicago’s problems.

Mayor touts holistic approach

Johnson, a vocal critic of Trump, has long taken heat for his approach to what he calls “community safety.”

As a candidate, he was criticized for his past comments describing the push to defund police as a “political goal.” He later faced a revolt in the City Council when he made good on his campaign promise to cut ties with ShotSpotter, a controversial gunshot-detection system the city used for years.

And yet, crime has fallen steadily under his watch.

While the police budget increased under Johnson, he attributes the positive crime trends to the city’s partnership with violence prevention groups and its investments in affordable housing, mental services and youth programs.

“There will be people who continue to beat this drum to try to bring us to an antiquated past that, quite frankly, did not yield results,” the mayor said.

“Clearly there’s not a direct correlation between just locking people up or just having more police officers. … It’s not the job of policing by itself to secure communities.”

‘We’ve got a long way to go’

Although crime has fallen in recent years, mostly Black and brown communities continue to bear the brunt of the city’s violence.

As of Dec. 28, the Gresham police district on the South Side had recorded 43 murders, a 34% drop from 2024 but still tied for the most of any district this year. Shootings had also fallen 36%.

Sherman Moore spent decades in prison for a non-violent drug conviction and now works with Greater Futures, a community violence intervention group that steers young people from Auburn Gresham and other South Side neighborhoods away from that path.

“It’s not an easy process,” Moore said. “We’re starting to reach them and that’s why the violence is going down, because they’ve seen through these organizations that people care about them.”

David Davis, an Auburn Gresham resident, recalled losing two family members to gun violence in recent years — one near his home and another in suburban Skokie.

Standing outside the Chicago Public Library branch near 75th Street and Racine Avenue, Davis said, “You always gotta be aware of your surroundings.” But he acknowledged the neighborhood has felt safer recently.

“I remember a couple of years ago, around here especially, you used to hear a lot of shootings,” said Davis, 50. “Now? Not nearly as much.”

Davis recalled yearly murder counts climbing over 900 when he was in high school. Since then, he’s seen more young people get drawn into the life of crime — a troubling trend for the father of a 9-year-old boy.

Davis said he believes that youth engagement and a higher minimum wage are keys to addressing the city’s violence.

“It’s not perfect but it was definitely a lot worse,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”