No fatal interstate shootings for first time in decade; highway shootings drop for 4th straight year: ISP

For the first time in a decade, no one was killed in interstate shootings as the number of shootings dropped for the fourth year straight in 2025, according to Illinois State Police.

There were 61 shootings on Illinois interstates last year, and 13 injuries stemming from them, police said. That’s a third reduction in shootings from last year and an 80% reduction from 2021, where 310 shootings led to 28 deaths and 133 injuries.

According to ISP data, there were 12 interstate fatal shootings in 2024, ten in 2023, four in 2022 and 28 in 2021.

“We’re committed to building upon this progress and will continue working tirelessly to improve public safety across Illinois,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.

State police credited work from their air and investigative units, specifically the use of Automated License Plate Reader cameras to track possible suspects as well as witnesses and others who were near the scene at the time of shootings.

Shootings have also been trending down on the state’s highways since 2021, which itself follows a larger nationwide pattern of crime decreases since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Chicago saw a nearly 30% drop in homicides, according to Chicago police data — the lowest total since 1965 and the first time in a decade the city has had fewer than 500 slayings in a year. Shootings in the city had also fallen 35% from 2024; robberies were down 36%; and aggravated batteries had dipped 11%.

The decline in overall crime was also seen in other U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia, according to a University of Chicago Crime Lab report.