Chicago's homicide total drops by over 100, but violence still 'intolerably high'

CHICAGO - After the deadliest year in two decades, the first half of 2017 seemed just as grim in Chicago as homicides remained devastatingly high, raising fears that the "spike" in violence had become a new normal for the city.

Then in the second half of the year, homicides plummeted, particularly in two of the city's most violence-plagued neighborhoods, contributing to about a 15 percent overall drop in killings over last year.

That decrease has raised new hopes that Chicago could make progress in shedding its national reputation for gun violence, an image fueled by both President Donald Trump's frequent mentions and by the distressing loss on Chicago's streets.

Why the second-half decrease?

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson cited new technology and tactics in those crime-plagued neighborhoods, and suggested that police relations with the community were improving. Anti-police sentiments were inflamed in 2016 after the release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shoot black teenager Laquan McDonald, and some accused police of going "fetal."

Johnson, however, has said he believed the video and its publicity emboldened criminals to break the law, a brazenness he now believes may have waned.

"I think that they used that to their advantage because if you think they don't pay attention to that type of thing, you're fooling yourself because they do," he said. "I think the boldness of them is starting to tick down a bit, but it's still there."

If officers were truly going "fetal" in 2016, there's no statistical indication