Only 30 Percent Of Last Year’s Murders Have Been Solved

Murders in Chicago were down last year, but it’s a different story when it comes to the number of murders actually solved.

“Forensic evidence may need processing time… so it stands to reason that an investigation may extend beyond a calendar year,” a police spokeswoman said.

But in 1991, for example, the murder clearance rate was 80 percent in Chicago – 927 murders committed, 741 solved.

In the early 1990s as a whole, the rate was 72 to 73 percent.

By 2005, it had slipped to 42 percent.

Last year, it was 30 percent, meaning fewer than a third of the murders committed in 2011 were solved last year.

If there’s any good news, the 2011 figure is slightly up from 28 percent in 2010. Source: WBBM, Chicago!