Aurora had only one homicide in 2024, which is the lowest rate since the city had none in 2012, city officials recently announced.
That rate is also lower than Aurora saw both in 2022 and 2023, two years Aurora saw five homicides each, and represents a continued downward trend since 2019, when Aurora saw 12 homicides, according to city officials’ presentation at a press conference at City Hall on Friday.
There were also 68 shootings in 2024, which is a drop of 40% from last year, officials said during the presentation.
“These numbers aren’t just statistics,” Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross said at the press conference. “They represent families who didn’t have to experience a loss, and a community that feels safer because they know they can count on us.”
While police officials said that one homicide is still too many, the incident in 2024 is one that police have called a domestic homicide. That’s important, according to Cross, because Aurora used to have around 20 homicides per year, most related to gangs or drugs.
“Back then, we struggled because we couldn’t get information from the people we needed to get information from because of intimidation and other things, but our community got tired of being victimized. People started speaking out and sharing information,” Cross said. “That’s why I think there’s an important distinction between what things were like back then and us being where we are now.”
During the presentation, Mayor Richard Irvin praised the Aurora Police Department for its “major progress” in crime rates and effective policing. Cross said the department’s success is because of “strategic planning, dedicated policing and a strong community partnership.”
Community partnership is especially important to the department and is why the city has seen such a drop in violent crime, even more so than technology, he said.
“No system or software can replace the impact of a community that works alongside its police department. A cooperative witness can do far more for an investigation than any camera or database,” Cross said.
That’s why the department has put in so much effort to build relationships within the community both by spreading the philosophy of community policing throughout the department and by creating a dedicated community policing unit, according to Cross.
It has not been an overnight process, but by engaging with the community and talking to people during the good times and the bad, community members are beginning to see police officers as more than just a uniform and are forming relationships so that, when something does happen, they already trust the police, he said.
The Aurora Police Department also combats crime using technology and “advanced investigative tools,” along with collaborations with other law enforcement agencies, according to Aurora Police Deputy Chief Matt Thomas.
For example, he said the department participates in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN, which can compare bullet casings from different crimes to figure out if they came from the same gun. This sometimes helps police link firearms to multiple crimes across different cities, he said.
The department does not just look at violent crimes as isolated incidents, but instead identifies patterns and repeat offenders to find those who are driving crime in Aurora, Thomas said.
“There’s a small percentage of people who commit a large percentage of crimes, which is why our work doesn’t stop after an arrest,” he said.
In addition to combating violent crime, the Aurora Police Department is also focused on keeping the city’s roads safe, especially through DUI, or driving under the influence, enforcement, according to Cross. He said the department made 351 DUI arrests in 2024, which is the fourth straight year the department has made over 300 of these arrests.
“These numbers represent lives saved and preventable tragedies avoided,” Cross said.
The department has taken a strategic approach to traffic enforcement by using real-time data to focus on the intersections with the highest risk of crashes, tripling enforcement efforts in these areas, Thomas said.
To support its efforts, the Aurora Police Department is growing, having gained seven officers and one lieutenant in 2024 and growing to the largest force in the department’s history at 326 sworn officers, Cross said. Those efforts will continue into 2025 with plans to add eight new officers and two new sergeants, he said.
While violent crime and traffic crashes are on the decline, property crime like car break-ins and shoplifting is on the rise, both in Aurora and across the nation, according to Thomas. He said during the press conference that the department is planning to take a “strategic, intelligence-driven approach” to these types of crimes in 2025 like it has done with violent crime.
After the press conference, Cross told The Beacon-News that the department is specifically planning to combine different existing units that currently sometimes work apart, such as the gang unit, the community policing unit and the patrol units, among others, to form a crime reduction team that works together and shares information to come up with ways to address the rise in property crime.
The Aurora Police Department is also using heat maps to track burglaries and link analysis charts to find similarities between different crimes, which help to develop the department’s action plans, Thomas told The Beacon-News.
“It’s all intelligence-driving, data-driving, and we really believe that’s the key to that success,” he said.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
