Chicago Criminal attorney comments on Chicago's crime rates

This Chicago Criminal attorney has posted here and here about decreases in crime.  Well the Chicago Police Superintendent has decided to weigh in now that April is over and May is considerably cooler than usual.

From chicagopolice.org:

Chicago Police announced a decline in the rate of violent index crime for 2010.  While there was jump in motor vehicle thefts, the majority of property crimes also declined when compared to last year's statistics.

Preliminary crime statistics indicate that Chicago experienced an 11 percent decline in violent crime despite a spike in violence at the beginning of April. Aggravated batteries, criminal sexual assaults and robberies all were down by at least 13.2 percent.

Statistics further show that, despite recent concern that violence has increased to unprecedented levels, Chicago has experienced a 6.9 percent overall reduction in crime so far this year. This marks the 16th consecutive month of lower overall crime in Chicago.

The one violent index crime to experience an increase of approximately 8 percent has been Homicide. As of May 8thth, 127 homicides were recorded and this reflects three more murders than last year's total. However, this number is below the five year average for the same time period from 2005-2009.

According to preliminary crime statistics through the end of April 2010:

Violent Index Crime is down 11 percent

Homicide – up 8 percent

Criminal Sexual Assault – down 13.2 percent

Robbery – down 13.6 percent

Aggravated Assault – down 14.8 percent

Aggravated Battery – down 5 percent

 

Property Index Crime is down 5.7 percent

Burglary – down .8 percent

Theft – down 10.9 percent

Motor Vehicle Theft – up 13.7 percent

Arson-- down 20 percent

 Does it seem odd to you that the numbers of homicide and motor vehicle theft are up while all other numbers are down?