A recent string of burglaries in Lakeview has attracted a good deal of attention from media outlets this week, particularly by the blog Crime in Wrigleyville + Boystown and DNAinfo. The reports do a great job of informing the community of spikes in crime but also portray the neighborhood as a dangerous, lawless place that has been abandoned by the police department.
Crime in Wrigleyville + Boystown alleges that a drop in manpower at the city's 19th police district has led cops to be overwhelmed by the amount of crime in the neighborhood. But how much crime actually occurs in Lakeview? After digging into the city's data portal, we found that it's been one of the safest parts of the city this summer.
Between May 1 and August 25, there were 77 burglaries and 137 violent crime incidents (excluding one homicide) in Lakeview. Out of the city's 77 community areas, those figures are the 20th and 23rd highest during that span, respectively. But when you look at the number of incidents per resident, those rankings plummet. During the same span, there were 0.82 burglaries and 1.45 violent crime incidents per 1,000 residents in Lakeview, which rank at 61st and 51st, respectively.
The arrival of summer is synonymous with crime throughout the city, and a handful of burglaries in the North Side area certainly isn't indicative of an incompetent or negligent police district. Lakeview has the second-largest population of the city's community areas, so it's understandable that a spike in crime there draws a lot of attention. It's no secret that Chicago has a crime problem, but Lakeview is only the tip of that iceberg.
Take a look at the table below for burglaries and violent crime incidents per 1,000 residents in each of Chicago's 77 community areas from May 1 to August 25.