After reading about all the carjackings in Chicago and seeing people complain about them on the Wicker Park Neighborhood Watch Facebook page I got curious. Could it really be that bad? And where were the hotspots?
Every year I review the statistics on aggravated assault and battery in Chicago (one type of violent crime) but carjackings would not be included in my dataset because they are considered robberies. So I decided to pull the data from the Chicago crime data portal and, sure enough, it’s as bad as everyone says. In fact, on a rolling 12 month basis the number of carjackings hit a record high based on the available data, which only goes back to 2001. Check out the graph below with the red, moving average line.
The trend had been steadily downward until mid 2015 but then it started to rise and the 12 month period ending in August was the worst on record. It’s truly astounding. For that 12 month period there were a total of 1701 incidents. What the hell?
As I’ve done with my other crime stats I broke it out by community area and was shocked to find out that my neighborhood, West Town, is #3 across the city. Look at which areas are ahead of it and which ones are below it. Again, what the hell? No wonder the Wicker Park (part of West Town) folks are all bent out of shape.
The Near West Side is right behind West Town. That area includes the West Loop, Little Italy, and University Village.
Depending upon your browser you might need to click on the graph to blow it up.
And you know what’s even worse? Out of those 1701 cases there were only 92 Arrests or 5.4% or the cases. What the hell?
#ChicagoCrime #ChicagoNeighborhoods
Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.