Chicago ended 2017 with fewer homicides than the year before, but gang violence in the city’s most dangerous neighbourhoods kept the total number of killings above the 600 mark for only the second time in more than a decade. The Chicago Police Department released statistics Monday that show the number of homicides fell from 771 in 2016 to 650 last year. Marshall Hatch, whose church is in one of the most violent neighbourhoods on the city’s West Side. “I am proud of the progress our officers made in reducing gun violence all across the city in 2017,” Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement. The department is also bringing on more officers, and they will be dispatched to some of the city’s most violent areas.

Source: National Post January 01, 2018 15:22 UTC