Latest Crime Stats Show Violence Down in Chicago

Chicago may wind up with its lowest murder rate since 1960's.

The October crime statistics released by the Chicago Police Department on Sunday showed yet another decrease in violent crimes.

Car thefts were the only category of crime to show an increase in the past month, up 22.7 percent over the same period in 2009.

Overall, violent crime was down 9.8 percent, and homicides were down 2.3 percent, with a total of 379 murders so far in 2010. Police said that puts us on par to have a lower number of murders than any year since 1965.

Police Superintendent Jody Weis said a big chunk of the murders are gang-related, and that's why the police department is continuing its focus on reducing gang activity.

"Nearly 55 percent of murders this year through the end of October were gang-involved, and we need to continue to strategically target the gang lifestyle – particularly guns and drugs – in order to decrease murders to our ultimate goal – zero," Weis said in a release.

Weis said those efforts included the targeted arrests of more than 60 members of one particular gang, after police put all gangs on notice that the next murder would bring a crackdown on the group responsible.

This is the 22nd consecutive month of decreases in the overall, violent and property crime indices, according to police.

Here's the full list of Chicago crime statistics for October 2010, when compared with October 2009:

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