This story was originally published by The Trace , a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here. CHICAGO — The late May passage of the Illinois Homicide Data Transparency Act — which will require law enforcement to track and publish detailed, standardized homicide reports — was welcome news to gun reform advocates in Chicago, a city where many shooting survivors say they distrust police. That distrust exists, in part, because Chicago Police typically solve gun crimes at lower rates than their counterparts in other cities, and they report their clearance rates in a way that tends to inflate their track record. The problem is so persistent that in 2018, the Chicago Police Department commissioned the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a police research and policy nonprofit organization, to evaluate its process for investigating homicides. This spring, CPD released a report updating the public on the department’s response to these recommendations. The report touted updates that have been made since the recommendations landed in 2019, noting that CPD had created homicide-specific detective units, invested in technology, and added staff to help families affected by gun violence. The report and the legislation are new developments that come as survivors and advocates revive a public conversation about Chicago’s stagnant clearance rates. As The Trace recently reported, even as fatal shootings dropped 20 percent between 2022 and 2024, clearance rates that led to an arrest within a year did not improve — despite CPD’s implementing PERF’s recommendations. Advocates like Alicia Schemel, who works on gun violence prevention with Live Free Illinois, a faith-based organization focused on improving public safety, say the changes have not done enough to move the needle on clearance rates — or to rebuild trust. They hope the bill will force more transparency, and help Chicagoans hold police accountable for improving homicide investigations. A Trace analysis found that Chicago’s clearance rates are declining even with fewer homicides to solve. Thousands of families are still looking for closure.
“People are finally saying: ‘You know what? You guys are not doing your jobs and we’re tired of it,’” said Schemel, who worked to pass the data transparency bill.
‘We should be experiencing some level of improvement’
The result of CPD’s self-commissioned evaluation was PERF’s list of 89 recommendations for the department’s Bureau of Detectives. Many of them suggested changes to departmental structures, staffing, training, and case management. The new report details CPD’s response to these recommendations, which included splitting the three areas covered by detectives into five — the West Side, Northwest Side, South Side, North Side, and Central — and creating a homicide unit within each one. PERF recommended increasing staffing to better meet demands. Since 2020, CPD has promoted 653 officers to detective. By the end of 2024, the department reported that the caseload for homicide detectives had eased, falling to an average of three investigations at a time, down from four. To further reduce caseloads, CPD launched the Homicide Team Pilot Program, which gives each detective one week of “on-call” work, requiring them to respond to every homicide in their area. These changes allow detectives to spend more time on long-term cases, while minimizing transfers to other detectives, something that sows confusion among surviving families. CPD created two guides to explain what detectives are supposed to do during homicide investigations. The department also trained detectives on addressing issues like implicit bias, hate crimes, and grief when they notify families of deaths. In 2023, CPD opened a new training facility. Advocates noted that the report did not thoroughly evaluate how effective these changes have been. “We’re not expecting drastic drops, but we should be experiencing some level of improvement,” said the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director of Live Free Illinois. Clearance rates should be going up, she said, as there are fewer shootings to investigate. In response to questions about the PERF report and advocates’ skepticism about it, a CPD spokesperson sent a written statement saying the department’s efforts to increase clearance rates and reduce homicides relies on collaboration between its bureaus. “While the improvements we have made to the homicide investigation process within the past few years have strengthened our response, homicide investigations remain complex cases,” the spokesperson wrote. “These cases can be extensive and lengthy based on the evidence available.”
Detectives get technology upgrades
CPD is also trying to better leverage technology in investigations. The department added new software to track cases. It also centralized digital evidence collection and analysis by opening five technology centers. There, detectives and police officers review footage from cameras that may have captured a crime in a neighborhood, and use technology to analyze and summarize findings. The University of Chicago’s Crime Lab helped CPD launch this initiative. Anthony Berglund, the crime lab’s associate director of project management, said that, before the tech centers launched, each detective would have to save video footage onto a DVD — even though some of their computers could not read them. The centers provide a better way for detectives to view and store evidence. “Technology could have been a hindrance to an investigation in the recent past,” Berglund said. “Now, technology can actually push an investigation forward.” Video evidence is especially important, he said, when witnesses may not be comfortable coming forward. This evidence, Berglund said, has also been helpful in exonerating wrongly accused people. It’s not about “just trying to increase clearance rates at all costs,” he said, “but trying to do it as thoughtfully as possible and try to get the right person.” In 2024, CPD opened the Crime Gun Intelligence Center, eliminating the backlog of evidence in their firearms lab. The department also established a DNA Processing Unit. CPD expanded the Forensic Services Division staff to 115 evidence technicians, with the capacity to add 27 more. The department also promoted 19 officers to be latent print examiners, officers who analyze specific evidence, like fingerprints. This year, CPD plans to launch a new center to process complex digital forensics cases. The Forensic Services Division is working to get accredited as a forensic science lab by 2027. According to the report, obtaining that status can reduce the likelihood of evidence being challenged in court. Altogether, the recommendations aim to improve CPD’s investigations, said PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler. “Clearance rates matter,” he said. “But I think what’s also important is that you’re making good cases.”
‘I can’t make detectives solve homicides’
In communities experiencing high levels of gun violence, survivors report that they haven’t yet felt the benefits of these reforms, Bates-Chamberlain said. In more than a hundred conversations that Live Free conducted with residents of Chicago’s South and West sides, community members said they feel neglected in the investigative process because detectives don’t regularly communicate with them. “One of the real challenges in certain communities is rebuilding trust,” Wexler said. “That can impact your ability to get information from the community. It can impact your clearance rates.” CPD’s report states that officers are trying to improve community connections through initiatives like creating the Family Liaison Office; participating in a University of Illinois at Chicago project aimed at centering the experiences of surviving family members; increasing the budget for crime victim specialists; meeting regularly with the Gun Violence Survivors Leadership Network; and working with Chicago Survivors, a gun violence prevention organization. Solving more cases, said Schemel, who is also a “survivor fellow” with the Everytown Survivor Network, will show that police care. (Through its nonpolitical arm, Everytown provides grants to The Trace. You can find our donor transparency policy here, and our editorial independence policy here.) For Schemel, the issue is personal. In 1999, when she was 20, someone shot and killed her father, Donald Schemel. After CPD left her without answers, Schemel said, she moved away, because she didn’t know if her father’s killers would come for her. Survivors want police to know that clearance rates are more than just numbers; they represent the events that cut their loved ones’ lives short, and they want the perpetrators to be held accountable. The Homicide Data Transparency Act, advocates say, is a step toward accountability. Currently, CPD homicide clearance rates include cases cleared by “exceptional means,” like an alleged perpetrator’s death, prosecutors’ rejecting a case, or the suspect’s incarceration. Starting in July 2026, police departments statewide will have to report each of those rates as separate categories. CPD’s statement to The Trace said that clearance rates were improving, but the numbers the department provided included cases cleared by “exceptional means,” and didn’t account for the year of the incident. “I can’t make detectives solve homicides,” Schemel said. “But I can get the information out there to let the public know where they’re falling short.”
