Criminal Damage in Chicago — Crime Statistics 2026

Property damage as CPD codes it

Criminal Damage is the IUCR primary type CPD uses for unlawful damage to property: vehicles, buildings, and other objects that are not taken (theft) and not entered as a burglary. Graffiti, smashed windows, and keyed cars often land here when the report is written that way. The 45,205 figure does not separate those descriptions; it is the primary-type total on the public feed.

Damage events are easy to misread on a map. A cluster of reports can mean a few blocks with repeated vehicle damage, a commercial strip, or a single weekend with many calls. The open-data table does not by itself explain motive. It records that CPD took a report and assigned this primary type. Treating 45,205 as a count of offenders would be incorrect; one person can generate several rows, and many rows never identify a suspect.

Size relative to the city extract

Among 410,083 Chicago incidents, 45,205 criminal damage reports are about 11.0 percent of the extract. That is a volume share inside CPD's IUCR list, not a ranking of dollar loss. This packet does not include a loss field, so no repair cost appears here.

Criminal damage is sometimes discussed as a quality-of-life signal. The public file cannot support a causal claim about disorder or about which community area is "worse." Official community area names on the rows are the city's 77-area system. Compare areas only as report counts, with the same caveats about reporting rates and late updates that apply to every CPD extract.

Questions

How many criminal damage reports are in the Chicago index?

LocalCrimeVault currently lists 45,205 Chicago incidents with IUCR primary type Criminal Damage, about 11.0 percent of 410,083 city reports. The source is Chicago Police Department incidents on the city open-data portal. The number counts reports, not convictions, unique offenders, or dollar losses. LocalCrimeVault does not reclassify CPD charges.

Is criminal damage the same as theft or burglary?

No. Criminal damage is unlawful harm to property that remains in place. Theft is taking property. Burglary is unlawful entry of a structure, typically to commit a theft or felony. CPD keeps these as separate primary types. This page covers only the 45,205 criminal damage rows in the Chicago extract.

Does the count include graffiti and vehicle vandalism?

Those descriptions often fall under Criminal Damage when CPD writes the report that way, but this packet gives one primary-type total, not a graffiti subtotal or a vehicle-damage subtotal. Use the incident table's IUCR code and description fields for finer cuts. Do not assume every damage report is graffiti.

Can I treat 45,205 as a neighborhood safety score?

No. The figure is city-wide report volume for one IUCR type among 410,083 Chicago incidents. Reporting rates, late submissions, and missing geography all affect maps. Community area names are official city geography. The respectful reading is statistical: how CPD labeled property-damage reports, not a verdict on residents.