Homicides, shootings fall in Chicago in 2017

Gun violence dropped in Chicago in 2017, though the overall number of homicides topped 600 for the second-straight year, police said.

Chicago police said there were 650 homicides in 2017, down from 771 in 2016. The number of shooting incidents also dropped to 2,785 from 3,550, according to The Associated Press.

The department credited the drop to an expansion of technology that allows police to locate where shots have been fired and quickly dispatch officers to the crime scene.

{mosads}The Chicago numbers mirror a recent analysis that shows the overall crime rate in the country’s 30 largest cities dropped by 2.7 percent between 2016 and 2017.

President Trump has periodically pointed to Chicago as a hotbed of crime, saying last summer that the city’s crime levels had reached “epidemic proportions.”

A Trump campaign rally scheduled for March 2016 in the city had to be canceled after protesters clashed with the candidate’s supporters.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) has been an outspoken critic of Trump. Emanuel, who previously served as former President Obama’s chief of staff, recently said he has declared the city a “Trump-free zone.”