Crime reports in Near West Side, Chicago
Near West Side is assigned 17,796 incident reports in the Chicago Police open-data index used here, out of 410,083 reports citywide. The neighborhood's share is about 4.3 percent of that city file. Source: CPD records on the city's Socrata portal, as indexed by LocalCrimeVault. The statistic is a report count, not a conviction count. Readers who need Near West Side in city context should keep 17,796 next to 410,083 and remember that about 4.3 percent is a rounded share of indexed CPD reports, not a crime rate and not a conviction share.
Key figures
- Near West Side has 17,796 indexed CPD incident reports (17796 of 410083).
- Chicago's matching citywide total is 410,083 reports.
- Near West Side is about 4.3 percent of that city file.
- The extract is geographic, not split by hospital or campus.
- Counts are public police reports, not convictions.
Reading 17,796 Near West Side reports
Near West Side's 17,796 figure is the size of the CPD incident extract for this West Side community area. Hospitals, campuses, expressways, and residential blocks all sit inside one official boundary. CPD's published community-area field does not say which of those settings produced a given row. The table is geographic, not institutional.
A large report volume next to downtown often reflects how many events were documented inside the boundary, including incidents on major streets that cut through the area. That is a coding fact, not a moral claim. LocalCrimeVault lists the public total and the rows; it does not rank Near West Side against unnamed peers on this page.
If you are matching planning shapefiles, Near West Side is community area 28. Mention the number when you join Census or city GIS layers. For general readers, the official name is enough, and both URLs on this site open the same 17,796-row neighborhood file.
A high or low raw count is not a safety grade. Near West Side's 17,796 reports describe documentation volume inside an official boundary. Commercial corridors, arterial streets, and housing density can all raise row counts without appearing as separate columns in this packet, so they are not used here as explanations.
When you chart Near West Side next to another community area, use the same city extract (410,083) and the same unit (incident reports). Mixing arrest counts, shooting dashboards, or 311 noise complaints into the same bar as 17,796 is a category error.
Public reports versus court outcomes
Illinois court clerks, not CPD's incident dump, record dispositions. The 17,796 Near West Side rows can include incidents with no arrest, arrests with no charge, and charges that were later dropped. None of those paths is visible as a single 'convicted' column in this index.
Respectful use of this page means quoting the report total with that caveat attached. Do not treat a block-level cluster on the map as proof of who offended. Open data is a starting inventory of police documentation.
Near West Side is about 4.3 percent of indexed city reports. If that share looks small, remember the city file is 410,083 rows; a one-percent slice is still thousands of public records. If it looks large, remember it is still one official community area, not a citywide score.
Share of the 410,083 city reports
About 4.3 percent of indexed Chicago CPD reports are coded to Near West Side (17,796 of 410,083). Pages for other neighborhoods on LocalCrimeVault use the same city denominator, so you can compare shares without mixing feeds.
A share is still not a rate. Without a population or daytime-population figure in this packet, we do not divide 17,796 by residents or by jobs. If you compute a rate yourself, cite your own denominator and keep it separate from this headline.
The alias path /cities/chicago/neighborhood/near-west-side/ is not a second dataset. It exists so a searcher typing Near West Side does not have to know the community-area integer. The canonical overlay table is /cities/chicago/neighborhood/community-area-28/.
Using the Near West Side table
Filter the incident table for dates and CPD type codes. The 17,796 headline is the unfiltered neighborhood assignment. Domestic, theft, and other labels belong on the rows, not in this packet, so they are omitted here on purpose.
The Chicago hub remains the parent view for 410,083 citywide reports. Move up when you need city context; stay on the neighborhood table when you need Near West Side rows only.
Socrata publication rules
CPD's open-data handbook (on the city portal, not restated as extra numbers here) describes fields that may be redacted. Expect incomplete addresses and delayed updates. LocalCrimeVault's 17,796 count matches the indexed snapshot, not a query you run tomorrow on data.cityofchicago.org.
Analysts who join Near West Side to Census tracts must still start from the community-area extract of 17,796 reports. Tract-level crime is a different construction and is not this packet. Keep Near West Side's about-4.3 percent share attached to the 410,083 city total. If a tract map and this page disagree, the geographies differ; do not force them to match.
How Near West Side relates to the city extract
Near West Side's 17,796 reports are a subset of the 410,083 indexed Chicago CPD incidents. About 4.3 percent is the rounded share. Use the Chicago hub when you need the parent file and the Near West Side incident table when you need the subset. Do not treat this guide as a third extract.
If you are writing a caption, the minimum accurate caption is: Near West Side, 17,796 CPD incident reports in city open data indexed on LocalCrimeVault, of 410,083 citywide, reports not convictions. Anything punchier than that usually drops a necessary limit.
Questions
- How many crime reports are in Near West Side, Chicago?
- LocalCrimeVault indexes 17,796 CPD incident reports for Near West Side. Chicago's indexed total in the same extract is 410,083. Near West Side is about 4.3 percent of those citywide reports. The count is police documentation, not convictions or a crime rate.
- Are Near West Side incident totals convictions?
- No. The 17,796 figure counts Chicago Police reports published in open data. Court findings are a separate record system. A report can exist with no arrest and no charge. Quote this page as report volume for Near West Side only.
- What community area number is Near West Side?
- Near West Side is Chicago community area 28. Researchers joining CPD extracts to city shapefiles should use that number. LocalCrimeVault serves the same 17,796 reports on the numbered path and the Near West Side name slug. LocalCrimeVault indexes Chicago Police Department incidents from the city open-data portal. Near West Side's 17,796 figure is a community-area report count inside the 410,083 citywide extract, about 4.3 percent of that file, and it is not a conviction tally.
- Where do I download or browse Near West Side rows?
- Use the Near West Side incident table for the indexed CPD rows. The name-based URL is an alias. For the city file of 410,083 reports, open the Chicago crime hub. This guide explains the headline; it is not a substitute for the table.
Chicago Police Department incidents via the city open-data portal (Socrata), indexed on LocalCrimeVault. Counts are reports, not convictions.