Still Number One!

But at a slower pace:

• Through the first nine months of this year, homicides in Chicago have declined significantly over a disastrous 2012 that saw killings surpass the 500 mark.
  
  The pace of improvement, however, has slowed sharply in recent months, putting the city on target to finish the year with close to the same number of homicides as in 2011.
  
  Despite the year-to-year improvement, Chicago still leads all major U.S. cities in the number of homicides.

Gee, the same number as 2011 - who suggested that the media look at that? Oh yeah, everyone not connected with Rahm, McStreetlightAssassin and CompStat.

There are some other hidden gems in the article, too:

• Shootings, though, are down substantially through the first three quarters of 2013, not just over last year's figures but also compared with 2011's. Through September, shootings have dropped 22 percent over last year and about 14 percent over 2011, the statistics show

Um, yeah, since they count multiple victim incidents (like the 13 shot in the park) as "one incident." And anything without a victim (shots fired, no hits) isn't even counted in the stats - being a poor marksman is aplus under CompStat.

• The department also spent tens of millions of dollars on overtime pay to, at one time, more than 400 cops a day to work in the city's most crime-plagued neighborhoods on their days off. Additional rookie cops have worked straight time in those neighborhoods on foot patrols.

Burning through the entire overtime budget even before summer had rolled around - that was great.

• While McCarthy scoffs at the weather as a factor, criminologists said the unseasonably warm start to 2012 contributed greatly to homicides topping 500 last year for the first time since 2008. The more typical winter weather early this year helped produce sharply lower homicide figures through the first three months.

Criminologists (people who actually study crime) agreed with our readers (cops whose field observations are the envy of any criminologist). Imagine that.

• Even with the improved numbers, Chicago remains far ahead of other big cities with its number of homicides so far this year. New York City has had 240 slayings and Los Angeles has 203, according to police statistics from late September, the most recent numbers available for the two cities. As of Thursday, Philadelphia had recorded 189 slayings.
  
  The Chicago Police Department's official homicide tally, which is reported to the FBI for its annual Uniform Crime Report, did not include four killings — three of which took place within city limits on expressways patrolled by state police. The homicide figures also do not include "death investigations" that could later be reclassified as homicides.

Ah yes, the number-fudging. That would be another article entirely.