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RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The mission of the Chicago Police Department ("CPD") includes a commitment to protect the lives, property, and rights of all people in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, In Chicago, 777 homicides were committed in 2016, 660 in 2017 and 561 in 2018, more than any other U.S. city in each of those years; and
WHEREAS, CPD's murder clearance rate is a term that describes the percentage of cases in which police arrest or identify a suspect in a homicide; and
WHEREAS, The murder clearance rate includes cases that are solved with an arrest and conviction, as well as cases in which CPD identifies a suspect but does not press charges, leaving the case unsolved; and
WHEREAS, The City's murder clearance rate has dropped over the last 20 years, from above 60% in the 1990s to below 30% in 2010 to 17.5% in 2017. The murder clearance rate fell even further during the first half of 2018 to 15.4%; and
WHEREAS, CPD views the declining murder clearance rate as a cause for concern because it can create a perception that CPD investigations will not see justice served, causing victims of violence and their loved ones to forego cooperation with the police and instead seek retaliation on their own; and
WHEREAS, As the elected representatives of the City, it is the City Council's obligation to investigate why the murder clearance rate is declining; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this twenty-fourth day of July, 2019, do hereby call upon the City Council Committee on Public Safety to convene a hearing concerning the murder clearance rate; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we call upon CPD's Superintendent Eddie Johnson, or his knowledgeable designee, Chief of Detective Melissa Staples and other individuals with pertinent knowledge, to attend this hearing in order to provide information about the murder clearance rate and to answer questions from the members ofthis Body.
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10 Christophe...
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