The reason has sadly been because it’s too cold to go outside…
Throughout February, Chicago remained in the grips of the coldest winter the city has seen in 30 years, which Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said was a factor in the month’s low homicide total.
“[Cold weather] doesn’t cause or prevent crime,” McCarthy told ABC Chicago (embedded) on Monday. “What it does is it sets up conditions where there are less people on the street and less likely that we’ll have — particularly gang-related — violence. [Cold weather] doesn’t mean that it stops [shootings] or that in July it causes [them].”
McCarthy went on to praise the department’s controversial change in strategy that now has officers visiting the homes of individuals they identify as likely victims or perpetrators of future crimes. The program has been compared to “Minority Report” and derided as high-tech racial profiling by some, but police say they’re optimistic it’s helping reduce crime.
“What’s really significant is that it’s our sixth consecutive quarter with murder and shooting reductions,” McCarthy said of the targeted policing strategy.
Thus far in 2014, murders in Chicago are down 25 percent and shootings are down 38 percent compared to the same time last year, the Sun-Times reports. Source
“Not success,” McCarthy noted, “but progress.” Source
Source: AllHipHop
