Touting crime is down, Chicago’s top cop appeared before City Council members Wednesday. defending the department’s proposed budget for next year.

While he wasn’t off the hook, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling’s appearance before the City Council was a bit more relaxed than previous years as Snelling received praise for a continued reduction in crime numbers and clearance rates.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

“Community assistance has also played a major role in moving these investigations along, whether it be through tips or video evidence provided by residents,” Snelling said.

Snelling appeared before City Council’s Budget Committee to answer questions about the proposed $2.1 billion 2026 budget for the Chicago Police Department.

RELATED | Mayor Johnson defends budget proposal in ABC7 Chicago exclusive interview

CPD is the largest city department, in terms of headcount and budget. For the past few years, CPD has consistently gone over budget with overtime costs.

“We try to control over time every year, and we have limited success in doing that, and you find out the hard way that you can’t control over time,” Public Safety Committee Chairman Ald. Brian Hopkins said.

Hopkins says the answer is hiring more officers. Snelling says the use of police over-time is due to the large amount of protests and festivals that take place in the city.

“There has been all of work we have put into overtime and reducing it we’ve seen year over year reduction in tens of millions of dollars,” Snelling said.

SEE ALSO | Chicago Police Department asked to come up with $98M in cuts amid city budget crisis

Chicago’s top cop was also asked several questions about ICE enforcement and CPD’s role in how citizens deal with situations where they accuse federal agents of being unlawful. CPD says while it can help someone with documentation to report an incident to federal authorities, it legally cannot conduct a criminal investigation.

“Local law enforcement we are caught in between these situations, what we are not going to do is violate the law, interfering work done by federal agents,” Snelling said.

Shotspotter was also brought up again Wednesday. Since Mayor Brandon Johnson canceled the contract for the gun recognition technology, CPD has been looking for a replacement. Snelling says a new vendor will be chosen soon and the technology may be ready by early 2026.

CPD October crime data

Overall crime numbers in Chicago are dropping.

A Chicago police report out Wednesday shows there were 34 homicides citywide in October. That’s a 38% drop from October of last year, when there were 55.

An analysis by the ABC7 Data Team, found that over the last 12 months, murders are down nearly 32% when compared to the yearly average of the prior three years.

ABC7’s analysis also found that violent and property crimes are decreasing rapidly in the city. However, violent crime on the CTA is still up slightly.

INTERACTIVE SAFETY TRACKER Track crime and safety in your neighborhood