Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Like a typical politician Chicago's top cop bends the truth, but then the truth makes him look bad. CTA shootings are up 64%, sexual assaults are up 300%, and robberies are up 9% — but Chicago’s police superintendent says transit crime is down.

Crime on the Chicago Transit Authority's buses and trains started increasing in 2020, despite the fact that ridership was down due to COVID.

It has gotten worse. So of course Mayor Lightfoot (who does NOT look like Beatlejuice!) and Superintendent Brown had a press conference to announce "new security measures."

In reality, the measures aren’t new. They’re essentially the same shuffling of police resources and private security contractors that the city has done time after time in the past when crime on the transit lines grabs media attention. Inevitably, the efforts wane, and crime returns, only to be addressed by the same “new” tactics after another press conference.

The city’s “plan” is so old and has been rolled out and rolled back so many times, we had no plans to write about it today. That is, until 32 minutes into the press conference when Brown, the police superintendent, boasted that there was an 11% decrease in crime on the CTA last year.

And if you look at the data he is right. There have been fewer trespassing incidents, fewer incidents of graffiti and other "criminal damage," and fewer people have been reported for turnstile jumping.

But that doesn't tell the whole story.

Between 2020 and 2021 on CTA:

• Murders increased 33% from 3 to 4
• Shootings increased 64% from 4 to 11
• Sexual assaults increased 300% from 4 to 16
• Robberies increased 9% from 453 to 492
• Stabbings increased 24% from 41 to 51

But hey, and least turnstile jumping is down. (Do you think that could have anything to do with the explosion in carjacking incidents? Probably not.)