Chicago Crime Rate — February 2026

Hegewisch vandalism is the lead signal for February 2026 — a sharp move above its multi-year baseline, the strongest single-neighborhood shift in the city this month. No demoted lead is in play; this is a fresh story with no prior-month incumbent to displace.

Citywide volume is down 9.5% against the prior 12 months — 129,875 incidents against 143,548. The month produced 127 total signals across 77 neighborhoods, and the mix is tilted toward structural persistence: 82 sustained-shift signals against 15 fresh spikes and 28 below-trend readings. Armour Square sexual assault and Gage Park other-larceny are among the spikes that pushed the top five; the Hegewisch vandalism move sits clearly above the rest in magnitude.

With 77 neighborhoods registering signals and the dominant share coming from sustained shifts, the February picture is one of broadly distributed, low-drama change rather than a concentrated breakout. The Hegewisch vandalism move is the one category worth tracking into March — but with a run length of one month, it's too early to call it a structural shift. The citywide decline holds.

Sustained drops worth naming

Homicide ran below trend in the trailing 12 months — 29% down from the year before. Sustained shifts often precede a baseline reset; we surface them at the same prominence as spikes.