Arson in Chicago — Crime Statistics 2026
689 indexed reports · 0.2% of Chicago incidents · 0 arrests in recent sample.
What is arson in Chicago?
Arson is knowingly damaging a building or property by fire or explosive without the owner’s consent, or with intent to defraud an insurer. Under Illinois law (720 ILCS 5/20-1) arson is a Class 2 felony; residential arson and aggravated arson — where the offender knows people are present or injuries result — are Class X felonies.
Chicago PD descriptions split arson by means ("by fire," "by explosive") and flag attempted and aggravated cases. Vehicle fires and garbage fires with criminal intent appear here, while accidental fires investigated by CFD do not enter the crime data.
LocalCrimeVault has 689 arson reports indexed in Chicago — 0.2% of all tracked incidents. The most recent full month on record (June 2026) logged 22 reports, up from 5 in May 2026.
Other offense types in Chicago
Top categories citywide: Theft (99,072), Battery (76,864), Criminal Damage (47,011).
How common is arson in Chicago?
Arson accounts for 689 indexed police reports in Chicago (0.2% of tracked offenses). Data comes from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- How many arson incidents are in Chicago?
- LocalCrimeVault has 689 indexed arson reports in Chicago, sourced from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- What share of arson reports lead to arrest?
- In our most recent sample of 0 arson records, 0 (0%) include an arrest flag in the source data.
- How often is arson data updated?
- Chicago crime records sync nightly from the open-data portal. New reports appear on type and incident pages after the sync and deploy pipeline completes.