ASTERISK: Belmont Excluded From "Crime Down On CTA"

Parvis Brahim

Just yesterday, we reported that “crime” is down. If by “crime” we’re talking precisely about robberies exactly within Wrigleyville and Boystown and only when compared to any of the last six [but not seven] years.

The real progress on that front this year cannot be diminished.

But the always-jiving-for-an-angle practices of the Chicago Police Department continue.

Monday of last week, Chicagoans awakened to great, cliche-ridden news. Crime is down on the CTA when compared to 2013, the media roared. The mayor says it’s all due to the installation of surveillance cameras.

Not mentioned in the rainbow and unicorn parade: Over the past seven years, crime is up at the Belmont CTA station.

While paid entrances to the Belmont station are up 37% compared to 2007, crimes reported there are up 52%.

If you take out turnstile jumping, crime is up 61% at Belmont.

The mayor, CTA, and Alderman Tom Tunney must be particularly pleased that it doesn’t count when someone is beaten and robbed directly under the L tracks in the middle of Belmont Avenue. That sort of stuff is technically not on CTA property. It’s in Belmont Avenue. So, you know, that’s not a CTA crime. CTA crime is insistently down.

Keeping Crime Down, One Run-Around At A Time

4:49PM Monday, July 28
500 block of Belmont

Dispatcher: [The caller] states his bike was stolen. He spoke to [an officer in the department’s file-a-police-report-over-the-phone division. That officer] transferred him to 911 so he could give us a description of the bike…They did not give him a report. They told him to call back later…to get a report.

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