Rockford police report drop in violent crime for 3rd straight year

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — City police on Wednesday reported across the board drops in crime ranging from the most serious violent offenses to auto thefts and property crimes.

It’s the third year in a row Rockford police have reported a drop in violent crime, which declined 6% in 2024 to 1,626 instances, or more than four a day.

“By no means do me and the chief think we’re where we want to be, and we certainly aren’t yet where all of our citizens deserve us to be,” Mayor Tom McNamara said at a news conference at the District 3 police headquarters. “But I think through the statistics you’ve seen today we’re unequivocally moving in that right direction continuously year after year.”

The department’s data also shows a nearly 8% drop in aggravated assaults, 22 fewer people shot for a 21% decline, two fewer homicides, a 21% drop in robberies, nearly 19% reduction in auto thefts and 9% reduction in property crimes such as burglary and theft.

The department also had a nearly 11% decline in total calls for service, down to 150,391, or about 412 per day.

“We are gracious and have learned to celebrate those small wins,” Police Chief Carla Redd said. “I’m thankful for the collaboration with the officers and the community at large. It’s been said over and over again, we wouldn’t see any of those declines if we weren’t able to work with our residents who are constantly in the neighborhoods and seeing and reporting what’s transpiring.”

Redd also credited increased technology tools that have helped detectives solve crimes. That includes more than 160 license-plate readers, a six-fold increase in surveillance cameras, gunshot detection systems, social analytics software, body cameras, dash cameras and new front and rear radar systems for squad cars.

Police solved 16 of 18 homicides in 2024 for a 89% clearance rate. That continues a turnaround that started last year, when 90% of homicides were solved. Two years earlier, in 2022, the city’s homicide clearance rate stood at 47%.

The number of homicides peaked at 36 in 2020. There were 24 in 2021, 15 in 2022 and 20 in 2023.

Domestic violence continues to be a driver of violent crime, making up the majority of the city’s violent crime for the first time since data has been tracked. Just over 50% of violent crime incidents in the city were domestic related last year. That’s up from 44% in 2023 and 38% in 2022.

The city had 15 traffic fatalities in 2024, including five hit-and-run crashes. Those numbers include six fatal crashes involving pedestrians and one involving a bicyclist.

McNamara said reducing those numbers requires a combination of enforcement and improving the city’s infrastructure to provide more bike lanes, better sidewalks and improved roadways. He noted the city’s capital plan has such improvements coming to 11th Street and Auburn Street, among other places across Rockford.

The city has increased its traffic enforcement, writing nearly 50% more tickets in 2024. There were 15,815 traffic citations last year compared to 10,615 the year before.

Redd said the city received Illinois Department of Transportation grants to help pay for some of the overtime costs to dedicate more time to traffic enforcement. The traffic unit worked 1,234 extra hours of enforcement time last year, the city’s data shows.

Auto thefts declined last year, but they continue to remain high historically as the department has grappled an issue with certain vehicles leaving them vulnerable to theft. Some Kia and Hyundai models can be started without a key, and videos that showcased how those cars can be stolen went viral on social media in 2022, the year auto thefts first spiked.

City police are hiring now to try to fill about 28 open positions in the department. There are 274 officers working in Rockford right now, it’s authorized strength in the city’s budget allows for 302. Applications are being accepted until Feb. 28 at rpdwantsyou.com.

“I’m incredibly proud of the work that the police department under Chief Redd’s leadership is doing and the leadership team and all of the officers,” McNamara said. “But also I’m just inspired at the work that our community organizations and community members are doing to say, enough of the violence, let’s all team up together and we’re all now moving in the right direction.”