Chicago Police Department Data

Chicago Police Department (CPD)

Data collected by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) include arrests and crime incidents reported to CPD.

Unit of Observation:
Individual arrest records; individual report; individual crime incident
Personally Identifiable Information Available for Linking:
Yes
Geography:
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Years Available:
1965 – present.
Cost:
Unknown
Frequency of Updates:
Unknown
Universe:

Records covering all crime reported to the Chicago Police Department, including incident reports and arrests

Access

Chicago Police Department (CPD) data includes many publicly available resources in their statistical reports such as Chicago Police Department Annual Reports, monthly and quarterly crime summaries, and publications on special topics. Identified adult arrest records, and gun and sex offender registries are also available. Further data on incidents of crime can be found in the Chicago Data Portal. 

Non-public data is also available and can be made accessible to researchers upon request. There are different types of ways through which data requests can be made depending on the specific data requested. These include Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), the Jeanne Clery Act, and the Freedom of Information Act. Of these request types, NDAs are the most highly used and relevant for research purposes. These can be requested by emailing [email protected] with specific details of the information sought, exact time period and locations, the intended use of the data, and the anticipated title of any publication produced or the nature of the product. For circumstances in which these do not apply, or where an NDA may not be needed, researchers can email [email protected] with details of their requests.

Timeline for Access

Unknown.

Lag Time

The approval process for data requests can take a significant amount of time.

Cost

Unknown.

Linking

Options and processes for linking are unknown.

Identifiers Available for Linking

  • First name and last name
  • Date of birth (Included for sex offender data, but not criminal records data).

Data Contents

Arrest data include a record of each arrest with arrestee identifying information and charge description. Crime incident data include date and time of crime incident, along with crime type and charge description. CPD maintains victimization data generated when a victim reports a crime, including the date and time of the crime incident and identifying information about the victim.

Partial List of Variables

Incident reports (public): date and time of crime incident, crime incident type, charge description, FBI code

Arrest data (public): adult arrestee first and last name, adult arrestee age, arrest charge description

Arrest data (not public): juvenile first and last name, juvenile date of birth, unique ID associated with arrestee fingerprint

Victimization data (not public): victim first and last name, victim date of birth, crime incident type and charge description
 

J-PAL Randomized Evaluations Using this Data Set

Cook, Philip J., Dodge, Kenneth, Farkas, George, Fryer, Roland G., Guryan, Jonathan, Ludwig, Jens, Mayer, Susan, Pollack, Harold, and Laurence Steinberg. 2015. “Not Too Late: Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth.” Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research Working Paper Series.


Heller, Sara B. 2014. “Summer Jobs Reduce Violence Among Disadvantaged Youth.” Science 346(6214) 1219-1223.


Heller, Sara B., Shah, Anuj K., Guryan, Jonathan, Ludwig, Jens, Mullainathan, Sendhil, Pollack, Harold A. 2017. “Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 132(1): 1-54.


Jacob, Brian A., Kapustin, Max, Ludwig, Jens. 2015. “The Impact of Housing Assistance on Child Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Lottery.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 130(1): 465-506.

Other Documentation

Heller, Sara B. 2014. “Supplementary Material for Summer Jobs Reduce Violence Among Disadvantaged Youth.” Science 346(6214): 1219-1223.  

Last reviewed