After surging, Chicago robberies hit historic lows

With a nearly three-year surge in the rearview mirror, Chicago robbery numbers have plunged to historic lows.

From September 2021 to June 2024, almost every month saw a year-over-year robbery increase, a WBEZ analysis of city data has found. Robberies peaked at 1,213 in August 2023. In July of last year, however, the numbers started to plummet. Every month since then has had a double-digit drop in robberies from the previous year. The first three months of 2025 had the fewest robberies of any quarter in decades.

“You could see the impact of COVID on crime,” said Wesley G. Skogan, an emeritus Northwestern University political scientist who analyzes Chicago’s numbers. “Burglary went way down but street robbery went way up.”

Since the pandemic, however, the return to more normal life has helped address some of the problems, Skogan said.

“Schools are open. Violence interruption is more common than it was before. Youth and recreational services are back. The police are working more reasonable hours and their activity — traffic stops, arrests, speeding tickets — has been creeping back up toward normal.”

Illinois defines robbery as taking property from someone by using or threatening force. The Chicago data analyzed by WBEZ include attempted robberies and both armed and unarmed incidents. The data also include carjackings, which are down more than 50% this year.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has credited the falling numbers to a “robbery task force” that the Police Department formed last May.

“Nothing is more important to me than the safety and well-being of all our residents,” Johnson said of the task force as he and other Democratic mayors were grilled March 5 by a U.S. House committee about their immigration policies.

A CPD spokesperson declined to answer questions about the task force, such as how many officers are assigned to it, or to detail any actions the task force took that might have contributed to the drop. In the past, the department has said the work consists of “on-the-ground missions and investigations” by detectives, patrol officers and counterterrorism cops. CPD reported in January that the task force had solved 158 robbery-related cases and 12 robbery patterns.

Just last Friday, according to a CPD press release, task force members arrested two boys, ages 16 and 17, “less than 20 minutes” after they robbed three men at gunpoint in the Logan Square neighborhood.

During the 12 months that ended March 31, more than three quarters of Chicago community areas tallied fewer robberies compared to the previous 12 months. Reductions of more than 50% took place in Avondale, Brighton Park, Dunning, Forest Glen, Hermosa, Hyde Park, Logan Square and Pilsen.

The only community areas with increases of more than 10% were Avalon Park, Burnside, Edgewater, Fuller Park, Hegewisch, the Loop and Norwood Park. By far the largest raw number on that list belongs to the Loop, which had 60 (21.6%) more robberies compared to the previous 12 months.

Per 10,000 residents, the highest robbery rates from April 2024 through March 2025 were in Fuller Park (302), West Garfield Park (109), East Garfield Park (95), Englewood (93) and North Lawndale (92). Still, all but Fuller Park had fewer robberies than the previous year.

Damien Morris, who heads a publicly funded antiviolence program for Breakthrough Ministries in East Garfield Park, said his team noticed a while ago that perpetrators of robberies, carjackings and assaults had gotten younger.

The Breakthrough team identified crime hot spots and established “popups” for leafleting and conversations about how to avoid carjackings and robberies, Morris said.

“We engaged with the men and women whose activities may seem high risk,” Morris said, pointing to dice games in public.

Robberies are among several forms of violent crime that have been dropping in Chicago. Murders so far this year are down nearly 24% from the same period last year, according to city data.

A New Orleans-based crime data analyst told WBEZ this month that Chicago’s diminishing violent crime is part of a national trend.

Chip Mitchell reports for WBEZ Chicago on policing, public safety and public health. Follow him at Bluesky and X. Contact him at cmitchell@wbez.org.