Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 4842 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: OCTOBER 2016 I f you want to clear murder cases, you’re going to need homi- cide detectives. And in Chicago, you’re going to need lots of them. And here’s where it gets frustrating for people that understand something about policing beyond the click-bait headlines they see on tops of articles they rarely read. You always hear about murders in Chicago but you rarely see anything about what kinds of chal- lenges police are facing. In the last 10 years Chi- cago has had one of the worst clearance rates of any of the country’s 10 biggest city agencies, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Chi- cago Police Department. Last year the clearance rate dropped to 46 percent, according to Chicago po- lice figures. Now you’ll hear a lot about the lack of trust or connection between the community and the police, the “stop snitching” culture and the rest of the standard explanations. But it’s kind of hard to clear homicides without homicide detectives. The number of detec- tives at Chicago PD is 922, down from 1,252 in 2008, according to a recent report from Reuters. One detective who re- tired two months ago said investigations just can’t be handled without the neces- sary manpower. Addition- ally, many homicide detec- tives aren’t even working murder cases. “You get so many cases you could not do an hon- est investigation on three- quarters of them,” the un- identified officer said in an interview. “The guys are trying to investigate one homicide and they are sent out the next day on a brand new homicide or a double.” Currently, about 8 per- cent of Chicago’s roughly 12,000 sworn personnel are detectives. In New York City and Los Angeles it’s 15 percent. John DeCarlo, professor of criminal justice at the Uni- versity of New Haven in Connecticut, said Chicago detectives frequently bail for better paying positions elsewhere. At the end of the day it’s just numbers. Chicago cops are coming off a record-setting month for murders last August, reeling from controversial use-of-force incidents and federal investigations, and are trying to clear cases without the necessary num- ber of investigators. Detective deficit If your neighbors think you’re a detective because a cop always brings you home, you might be a redneck. – Jeff Foxworthy It’s easy to find detectives on TV. They’re everywhere. In Chicago though – not so much. Matthew McConaughey (right) and Woody Harrelson starred in HBO’s True Detective. D e d icatedOctober15, 1 9 9 1 N a t i o n a l L aw Enforcement Officer s M e m o r i a l 1991 2016 LawMemorial.org/25Years