Criminal Damage in Chicago — Crime Statistics 2026
48,659 indexed reports · 11.0% of Chicago incidents · 1 arrests in recent sample.
What is criminal damage in Chicago?
Criminal damage to property covers knowingly damaging, defacing, or vandalizing someone else’s property — broken windows, slashed tires, graffiti, and damaged vehicles are the most common reports. Illinois law (720 ILCS 5/21-1) grades the offense by the dollar value of the damage, from a misdemeanor up to felony classes when damage exceeds statutory thresholds or targets schools, churches, or critical infrastructure.
In Chicago PD data these reports appear under criminal damage IUCR codes with descriptions like "to property," "to vehicle," and "criminal defacement." The category excludes arson, which is filed separately when fire or explosives are involved.
LocalCrimeVault has 48,659 criminal damage reports indexed in Chicago — 11.0% of all tracked incidents. The most recent full month on record (July 2026) logged 1,265 reports, down from 2,024 in June 2026.
Latest reports
| Date | Offense | Arrest? | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 18, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 18, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 18, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Criminal Damage | Yes | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Criminal Damage | No | View → |
Other offense types in Chicago
Top categories citywide: Theft (101,882), Battery (79,633), Criminal Damage (48,659).
How common is criminal damage in Chicago?
Criminal Damage accounts for 48,659 indexed police reports in Chicago (11.0% of tracked offenses). Data comes from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- How many criminal damage incidents are in Chicago?
- LocalCrimeVault has 48,659 indexed criminal damage reports in Chicago, sourced from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- What share of criminal damage reports lead to arrest?
- In our most recent sample of 58 criminal damage records, 1 (1.7%) include an arrest flag in the source data.
- How often is criminal damage data updated?
- Chicago crime records sync nightly from the open-data portal. New reports appear on type and incident pages after the sync and deploy pipeline completes.