Chicago Police Detectives Solve Higher Percentage Of Murders In 2013 As Clearance Rate Improves

CPD Solved Higher Percentage Of Murders In 2013
CHICAGO, IL - DECEMBER 15: Neighborhood residents watch as police investigate a homicide scene after a 24-year-old man was found dead with a gunshot to his back in the Lawndale neighborhood on December 15, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. At around 7:30 a.m. someone reported finding the body lying on a sidewalk. Residents at the scene reported hearing gunshots around 3:00 a.m.. Chicago has had more than 400 homicides in 2013. Last year the city reported more than 500. ( Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images )
CHICAGO, IL - DECEMBER 15: Neighborhood residents watch as police investigate a homicide scene after a 24-year-old man was found dead with a gunshot to his back in the Lawndale neighborhood on December 15, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. At around 7:30 a.m. someone reported finding the body lying on a sidewalk. Residents at the scene reported hearing gunshots around 3:00 a.m.. Chicago has had more than 400 homicides in 2013. Last year the city reported more than 500. ( Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images )

Story by Mark Konkol, courtesy DNAinfo Chicago:

In 2013, the Chicago Police Department did a better job of catching killers.

A retooled homicide detective division flush with 72 newly promoted investigators assigned to probe shootings brought charges in or cleared 30 percent of murders in Chicago last year, according to police data obtained by DNAinfo Chicago.

Detectives cleared 126 of the 415 murders tallied in the city last year— the Police Department's best murder-solve rate in a single year since 2009, the data show.

That's a 5 percentage point improvement from 2012, when the department solved only 25 percent of 506 murders, the lowest clearance rate in 21 years.

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