Sixteen of the 20 largest police departments reported a year-over-year rise in homicides as of mid-December, a Wall Street Journal survey found. Some notched minor increases, while Chicago has experienced one of the most dramatic jumps, with more than 720 murders—up 56% from 2015.

Chicago’s homicide count, greater than the considerably larger cities of Los Angeles and New York combined, marks a grim tally not seen since the violent drug wars of the 1990s. As the bodies in Chicago pile up—including that of Nykea Aldridge, cousin of basketball star Dwyane Wade, shot while walking with her baby in broad daylight—police are struggling to solve the killings, clearing only one in five homicides so far this year.

Nationally, 37 of the 65 largest police agencies, including ones in San Antonio, Las Vegas and Memphis, Tenn., reported year-over-year homicide increases as of Sept. 30, the Major Cities Chiefs Association said. In 2015, 44 departments reported increases, many for the first time in years.

“I have a lot of concern about that many cities experiencing those increases in violence,” said Darrel Stephens, executive director of the association, which represents chiefs from the largest departments. He said it is too early to know whether the increases constitute a trend.

Mr. Stephens said he thinks crime is largely driven by local dynamics such as drug-related violence. But he said police chiefs nationwide bemoan the easy availability of firearms. In Chicago, police have seized more than 8,000 illegal guns this year. He also said solutions to stem the tide of violence will require more than policing strategies.

“One thing that is consistent in our high-poverty, high-unemployment, low-educational achievement areas of our cities: We have a lot more violence than we have in other areas,” he said.

Chicago and a handful of cities accounted for much of the overall 10% increase in homicides across the 65 communities, he said. Rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and non-fatal shootings were also up at the end of September, the association’s survey found.

San Antonio had the highest percentage increase as of mid-December, the Journal’s survey found. Its 144 homicides amount to a 60% increase from 2015. Of the four cities recording drops in 2016, three—Baltimore, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.—had homicide upswings in 2015 that topped 50%. The other, New York, had a small increase in 2015 and a 5% decrease in homicides this year through mid-December, and is more broadly experiencing historic lows in violent crime.

In some cities, violent crime increased in the wake of deadly police confrontations with young black men. For example, murders and nonfatal shootings skyrocketed in Baltimore after the April 2015 death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray sparked rioting and prompted prosecutors to bring criminal charges against six officers.

In Chicago, too, the big increase in homicides has come since the release, in November 2015, of a video from a year earlier showing a white officer killing a black 17-year-old in a hail of 16 bullets. The Chicago department is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, which earlier this year found the Baltimore Police Department routinely engages in a range of unconstitutional policing practices.

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/homicides-rose-in-most-big-cities-this-year-1482402602

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