Marked decline in homicides, robberies proves critics wrong about Pretrial Fairness Act

Beginning two years ago, crime began plummeting across the country — including here in Chicago. The decrease we’ve seen since the high-water mark during the pandemic is astounding. Starting in July 2024, Chicago began experiencing a double-digit drop in robberies compared to the year prior. At the end of 2025, they had dropped 35%.

Murders likewise began dramatically declining in 2023, and last year, Chicago had its lowest murder rate in 60 years.

We should be celebrating this data, which represents real human lives saved and injuries avoided, while also exploring what caused the drop in violent crime and then modeling those practices. Fortunately, experts are fairly uniform in their assessment: We invested in communities.

Wesley Skogan, a professor emeritus at Northwestern University who analyzes crime numbers, attributed the drop to the more frequent use of violence interruption programs and fully functional youth and recreational services.

Nationally recognized crime data analyst Jeff Asher likewise theorizes that, “a strong investment in communities from private and public sources after the shock of the pandemic stands out as a major cause” of the decrease in homicides."

That includes money spent on infrastructure, violence intervention, job support and supporting communities. Some of the money came from state and local investments, and some from the federal government. Unfortunately, President Donald Trump is now rolling back many of these investments and using U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and the threat of the National Guard to destabilize our communities.

We cannot forget that we now have a blueprint for community safety that is worth pursuing. Unlike jail and prison, these community investments actually address the root causes of crime.

Even as our investments are working, some want to return to the failed “lock 'em up” policies that created mass incarceration but didn’t create safety. Trump has made a concerted effort to take credit for our success in Illinois, saying that decreases in crime — which significantly predate the federal government's invasion — are due to its reign of terror and kidnapping residents off the street.

Just as decreases in crime started long before Trump’s invasion, decreases in crime started long before the new Cook County state’s attorney took office. Crime started falling in 2023 from its COVID-19 high, and the trends in Chicago mirror those we see across the country. This, of course, suggests that the professors and data analysts are right: Something else is afoot.

We also know that increased jailing actually leads to negative public safety consequences long term. Studies have repeatedly shown that even short periods of pretrial jailing increase the likelihood that someone will be arrested again.

It is no coincidence that the decrease in crime has coincided with the number of people jailed awaiting trial decreasing over the last decade. It’s because ensuring as many people as possible are home awaiting trial has long-term, positive consequences. People are able to keep their jobs, family and community connections and housing while awaiting their day in court.

When implemented, the Pretrial Fairness Act ended the use of money bond in 2023. We ensured that families would no longer have to choose between paying the rent or paying ransom to secure the constitutional right to the presumption of innocence.

Judges are now receiving more information and spending more time on decisions regarding pretrial release and detention. And most importantly, the law is working. In Cook County, the vast majority of people on pretrial release are succeeding. In the two years since the Pretrial Fairness Act took effect, 94% of the more than 130,000 people released pretrial have not been charged with new offenses against a person, according to summary data compiled by staff at the Cook County chief judge's office.

We must not lose sight of what works. In 2023, in addition to ending money bond, opening back up our schools, recreation centers and public gathering spaces, we started investing in programs that have been shown to actually protect safety: community violence interruption programs, substance use disorder treatment and harm reduction programs and hospital-based violence intervention programs that support the people most affected by gun violence.

These investments and reforms to our criminal legal system are working. It would be a mistake to allow politicians who are focused on advancing their careers at the expense of our communities to allow us to return to the failed “public safety” policies of the past. It takes a long time for root-cause solutions to show results, and we are finally seeing the effect here in Chicago and nationally.

Illinois state Rep. Lisa Davis, D-Chicago, represents the 32nd District.