“I truly love keeping the wolf from the lambs.”
April 24, 2016 3:38 PM Subscribe
The retired cops investigating unsolved murders in one of America’s most violent cities. by Christopher Pomorski [The Guardian] A former murder capital of the US, Camden, New Jersey has created its first cold case squad. Can solving old killings help restore an embattled community’s trust in law and order?
Related: The Counted People Killed by Police in the US [The Guardian] The Counted is a project by the Guardian – and you – working to count the number of people killed by police and other law enforcement agencies in the United States throughout 2015 and 2016, to monitor their demographics and to tell the stories of how they died.
Related: The Counted People Killed by Police in the US [The Guardian] The Counted is a project by the Guardian – and you – working to count the number of people killed by police and other law enforcement agencies in the United States throughout 2015 and 2016, to monitor their demographics and to tell the stories of how they died.
Chicago has a clearance rate for murders of around 20-30% and that is a seriously inflated statistic because "clearance" includes when the police close a file by stating that they think they know who did it but don't have evidence (about 1/3rd of clearances are of this nature).
So assuming no serial killers (big assumption) Chicago currently has about 350+ murderers a year who go uncaught. Given that the murder rate has been trending down and the clearance rate has deteriorated but was never great we can assume at least 350 uncaught killers per year. That means there are likely a thousand new murderers walking the streets of Chicago every three years.
If you assume a short lifespan for murderers of say 60 years with the bulk of murderers between 20-24 that is 30 to 35 more years of life then how many murderers are there living among us right now?
Cases are cold before the bodies even hit the ground. I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of cleared murders are ones where the murderer stays at the scene and gives themselves up.
Law and Order: mostly fantasy.
posted by srboisvert at 6:22 PM on April 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
So assuming no serial killers (big assumption) Chicago currently has about 350+ murderers a year who go uncaught. Given that the murder rate has been trending down and the clearance rate has deteriorated but was never great we can assume at least 350 uncaught killers per year. That means there are likely a thousand new murderers walking the streets of Chicago every three years.
If you assume a short lifespan for murderers of say 60 years with the bulk of murderers between 20-24 that is 30 to 35 more years of life then how many murderers are there living among us right now?
Cases are cold before the bodies even hit the ground. I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of cleared murders are ones where the murderer stays at the scene and gives themselves up.
Law and Order: mostly fantasy.
posted by srboisvert at 6:22 PM on April 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well, there certainly is room for improvement. Norway, twice the size of Chicago, has 34 unsolved murders in total since 1990.
That being said, I hope the cold case squad can close some files, and maybe even bring some closure to some families.
posted by Harald74 at 11:42 PM on April 24, 2016
That being said, I hope the cold case squad can close some files, and maybe even bring some closure to some families.
posted by Harald74 at 11:42 PM on April 24, 2016
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posted by ACair at 5:44 PM on April 24, 2016