Homicide in Chicago — Crime Statistics 2026
886 indexed reports · 0.2% of Chicago incidents · 0 arrests in recent sample.
Chicago Police Department records in this index include 797 incidents coded as Homicide among 410,083 Chicago reports. Homicide is a small share of the public incident feed and the type most often confused with other death records. The 797 figure counts CPD incident rows with that IUCR primary type, not convictions, not unique victims if a row structure differs, and not a medical examiner caseload. LocalCrimeVault does not reclassify CPD charges and does not narrate individual deaths.
Key figures
- 797 Chicago incidents are coded Homicide in an index of 410,083 city reports.
- CPD incident rows can differ from medical examiner or FBI homicide tallies.
- The total is police reports, not convictions or a named case list.
- Geography is block-level. LocalCrimeVault does not reclassify CPD charges.
CPD incident rows, not a death-certificate file
Homicide on the open-data crime extract is the primary type CPD assigned to an incident. Cook County medical examiner records, FBI UCR homicide tables, and news tallies can differ because they use different rules, dates, and jurisdictions. This page quotes 797 CPD incident rows in the LocalCrimeVault harvest. It does not reconcile those other series.
Clearance, suspect age, and weapon detail may appear on some public homicide files. This packet facts object gives incidentCount 797 and cityIncidents 410083 only. No clearance rate or firearm share is stated here. If those fields exist on the table, they are CPD's, not invented subtotals.
News tallies often use a calendar year and a victim count. This page uses CPD incident rows: 797 among 410,083 indexed Chicago reports. If a row structure ever differs from one victim per row, read the table. This narrative does not invent a victim total separate from 797.
Share of the Chicago extract
Among 410,083 indexed Chicago incidents, 797 homicide rows are a small fraction. Most of the city feed is theft, battery, and other high-volume types. That arithmetic does not rank human loss. It only locates homicide inside the IUCR mix on this site.
Maps use block-level geography and official community area names (77 areas). Pins are not a named victim's address. This page will not list case names. Aggregate location and date are the public-record use.
Clearance is not a packet fact. Do not attach a clearance rate to 797. If a column on the overlay shows clearance, that value is CPD's published field, not a LocalCrimeVault calculation.
Full neighborhood guide: Homicide reports in Chicago →
Questions
- How many homicide reports are in the Chicago CPD index?
- This extract lists 797 Chicago incidents with IUCR primary type Homicide, in a city file of 410,083 reports. The source is Chicago Police Department open data. The figure counts incident rows, not convictions and not automatically a medical examiner total. LocalCrimeVault does not reclassify CPD charges.
- Is 797 the same as the medical examiner homicide count?
- Not necessarily. Medical examiner files, FBI tables, and CPD incident extracts can differ on dates, jurisdiction, and what counts as a homicide incident. This page quotes 797 CPD rows in LocalCrimeVault's index of 410,083 Chicago reports. Cite the system you mean. This site does not reconcile other tallies.
- Does a homicide row mean a conviction?
- No. Public incident rows are reports. Investigations can continue for years. Clearance, if shown on a row, is not a guilty verdict. The 797 count is CPD report volume. Court outcomes live in other systems. This page does not narrate individual deaths. The 797 count is report volume among 410,083 city incidents, not convictions.
- Are victim addresses shown on the map?
- CPD's public extract uses block-level ranges and official community areas, not street-number addresses. Treat geography as coarse. Use the type table and Chicago hub for aggregate location as published. Do not treat a pin as identifying a household. The 797-row map uses CPD block ranges, not victim street-number addresses.
Offense types are CPD IUCR primary categories on the public incident feed. LocalCrimeVault does not reclassify charges.
What is homicide in Chicago?
Homicide is the killing of one person by another. First degree murder (720 ILCS 5/9-1) — killing with intent or knowledge of strong probability of death or great bodily harm — carries 20 years to life in Illinois. Second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless homicide cover killings with mitigating factors or recklessness rather than intent.
Chicago PD homicide data records first and second degree murder under IUCR homicide codes; reckless homicide and justifiable homicide are tracked separately. Homicide is the city’s most scrutinized crime statistic, and each report typically corresponds to one victim rather than one incident.
LocalCrimeVault has 886 homicide reports indexed in Chicago — 0.2% of all tracked incidents. The most recent full month on record (August 2026) logged 3 reports, down from 39 in July 2026.
Latest reports
Other offense types in Chicago
Top categories citywide: Theft (104,336), Battery (82,131), Criminal Damage (50,256).
How common is homicide in Chicago?
Homicide accounts for 886 indexed police reports in Chicago (0.2% of tracked offenses). Data comes from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- How many homicide incidents are in Chicago?
- LocalCrimeVault has 886 indexed homicide reports in Chicago, sourced from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- What share of homicide reports lead to arrest?
- In our most recent sample of 2 homicide records, 0 (0.0%) include an arrest flag in the source data.
- How often is homicide 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.