Chicago police report drop in weekend violence
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO (AP) - As an additional 600 police officers patrolled five violent Chicago police districts over the weekend the number of shootings dropped and no one was killed.
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Monday said the districts will continue to see additional patrol officers "until we're comfortable things are stabilized."
The increased patrols are an effort to prevent a repeat of the Aug. 3-Aug. 5 weekend that left at least 71 people shot, 12 of them fatally. Authorities say about 35 people were shot during the past weekend.
Johnson said the difference between the two weekends was not because the police department did "anything particularly different." He said crime is cyclical and it's never known "when this stuff gonna pop."
Johnson said officers paid particular attention to large gatherings in five of the city's 25 police districts. The five accounted for more than half of the past weekend's shootings.