How bad is Chicago crime?

U.S. President Donald Trump calls Chicago a “killing ground”, a “hell hole” and “the capital of murder” – and said he will send the National Guard to “quickly resolve crime.”

It was a month after he did the same thing in Washington, D.C., that he claimed the crime was out of control, although official numbers showed it.

The Democratic governor of JB Pritzker, Illinois, said Chicago does not need the president’s intervention.

“We have a job, that’s to fight violent crime on the streets of our city, and by the way, we succeeded.”

The BBC has validated that the figures about Chicago crime and comparisons with other U.S. cities have been looked at.

In 2024, Chicago recorded approximately 540 violent crimes per 100,000 people. According to the FBI (FBI).

The city has about 2.7 million people inhabited – making it the third largest in the United States – living in a wider metropolitan area.

FBI violent criminal measures include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Last year, Chicago’s violent crime rate fell 11% at 2023 levels, about half of what it was in the years before the 19th pandemic.

According to the analysis of FBI data verified by the BBC, the city’s population at the bottom of the U.S. city is larger than 500,000 (No. 29).

Last year, violent crime rates were higher in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Memphis, Detroit and Baltimore have the highest rates – more than 1,500 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) publishes separate crime figures.

It also records the decline in violent crime, Announced in August The crime fell by one fifth in the same period last year.

Shortly after the Labor Day holiday in the United States on September 1, President Trump said on his truth social platform: “At least 54 people were shot and eight were killed in Chicago over the weekend.”

These figures are widely reported by multiple news media, Including BBC partner CBS.

As of the end of August, Preliminary data from CPD So far this year, 278 homicides have dropped by nearly one-third in the same period last year.

In 2024, Recorded CPD There are 591 homicide cases, one including both murder and murder.

The FBI’s 461-year numbers were low last year, and crime analyst Jeff Asher said that this is because the CPD has reported on the agency’s homicide number in recent years.

Last year, the FBI recorded the highest number of homicides in any U.S. city.

Homicides in Chicago have dropped significantly since the 1990s, when more than 900 years of coverage.

According to FBI data, the homicide rate has been declining in recent years.

Last year, there were about 17 homicides per 100,000 people, compared with 19 people in 2023 and 23 people aged 23.

Chicago did not top the list last year in terms of homicide rates per 100,000 people.

Analysis by the BBC’s verification of FBI figures shows that Chicago ranks 1037th in the city with a population of more than 500,000.

If CPD is used, it will be the seventh.

In 2024, the highest ranking city is Memphis (41 per 100,000 people), followed by Baltimore (35 homicides per 100,000 people).

“Chicago has the highest murder rate among American cities,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The White House press release says the city has the highest murder rate for seven consecutive years and Related to research Rochester Technical Institute Group.

Research This finding is indeed proposed, but its conclusion is based on a sample of only four American cities with a population of more than one million.

And, according to the same study, Chicago ranks 8th in the 24 cities in terms of homicide rates in 2023 and 2024.

“There are different measures, and analysts are often focused on per capita rate because it is the most representative measure, but people’s perceptions are informed by many other factors,” said Adam Gelb of the Criminal Justice Committee of the Charre Think Tank.

“This includes the spikes and surges of crime, just like when many events occur over a period of condensation, which is important to people’s perception of the problem, and the impression of an aircraft crash is the same as a series of car accidents.”

this FBI warns objection Use its crime statistics to create rankings.

The BBC verified the two crime analysts also warned not to rank cities.

“The best way to rank is not to do this, because the way different urban boundaries can make the way to compare crime data very challenging,” said Jeff Asher, co-founder of a U.S.-based data analytics company.

“The White House has been comparing rates for other international cities with 30 million people – but when you’re not scaling up compared to cities with that scale of crime, because it’s usually concentrated in certain areas and the data internationally is very different,” he added.