Chicago's interim police superintendent says he doesn't know why homicides and shootings climbed so dramatically in January compared with the same month last year.
But John Escalante said Monday that one concern is the significant decrease in the number of investigatory stops in January that coincides with a change in the policy regarding such stops.
Officers now must fill out far lengthier documents than the brief “contact cards'' they previously used.
Escalante says some officers also have expressed concern about their actions becoming the next “viral video'' following the city's release in November of video of a white officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Chicago had 29 homicides last January, compared with 51 this January.
Escalante didn't link the increase in homicides to unseasonably warm weather this January, though violent crime typically increases with warmer weather.
This item has been corrected to say that this January had 51 homicides and last January had 29.
