Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The recession is stinging in President-elect Barack Obama’s hometown, where the Chicago Police Department is slowing hiring even as murders increase.

Murders in Chicago rose 16 percent in the first 10 months of the year. The city’s homicide rate is triple New York’s and double that of Los Angeles. Thirteen pupils have died from gunfire since the semester began in September, said Mike Vaughn, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools.

“When economic prospects go down, crime goes up,” said Rev. Marshall Hatch, 50, pastor of New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church on the city’s west side. “This is exactly the worst time to cut police manpower.”

The council’s decision to reduce police hiring next year by about half, to 200 officers, will save $10 million. The budget also requires firing as many as 759 workers in other departments.

“This is a historic deficit that the city is faced with,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a non- profit research group. “The fear now is the downturn in the economy will create even more criminal activity.”

Unemployment in metropolitan Chicago, the third-largest U.S. city, rose to 6.9 percent in October from 4.9 percent a year earlier. Mayor Richard Daley told reporters after a city council meeting last month that several corporations had warned him of plans for deep job cuts next year.

The city’s revenue will shrink by $187 million in 2009 while expenses will increase by $302 million, Msall said. Revenue will total about $5.97 billion, he said.

Close to Obama

Some murders occurred a little more than a mile from Obama’s home in the southside neighborhood of Kenwood. The violence has tempered joy over his election, officials said.

“It’s a tragedy that people are dying,” said Jody Weis, 50, Chicago’s police superintendent. “It does mar an otherwise tremendous celebration.”

Obama wasn’t available to comment on the recent upsurge in Chicago murders, said Reid Cherlin, a spokesman for his transition office.

In a speech last year at a Chicago church, Obama called for more police to combat gangs, more after-school programs for vulnerable children, and more attention among parents to the needs of young people.

So far this year, murder has claimed more lives in Chicago than during all of 2007. The total stood at 482 on Dec. 4, up from 443 last year. It’s the most since 2003, when 601 people were murdered. The record was 970 homicides in 1974, said Monique Bond, a Chicago Police Department spokeswoman.

The rate of one homicide for every 5,878 residents compares with one in 11,322 for Los Angeles as of Nov. 29 and one in 17,294 for New York as of Nov. 30, according to U.S. Census Bureau data and local police. Chicago’s population is 2.83 million.

More Children Killed

The 13 deaths among schoolchildren exceed eight murders a year earlier. The sight of murdered classmates’ empty desks is traumatizing for children, said Arne Duncan, chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools.

Academic research doesn’t show a link between hard times and murders, said Gary Slutkin, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It does tie economic slumps to an increase in robberies, he said.

“Everybody doesn’t go nuts when times are tough, but lots of people feel the need for more money,” he said.

The deteriorating economy exacerbates problems with gangs, guns and drugs, Daley said at a press conference last month.

“People will go to a lot of substance abuse, they’ll go to alcohol,” Daley said. “People take this real personal when they lose their jobs, lose their homes.”

All crimes reported to Chicago police through October rose 3.5 percent, including a 9.2 percent increase in robberies.

Mixed Demographics

“Chicago still looks shiny and pretty along the lake, but that hasn’t cured the problems faced by all parts of society,” said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Weis, who was named to his post a year ago, said he is confident that murders will decline in 2009 even with fewer police. He previously was special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Philadelphia office.

He came on board after Daley had disbanded the department’s Special Operations Section, which targeted gangs. Seven former SOS officers are awaiting trial for crimes including armed violence, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney. Weis launched the Mobile Strike Force to replace SOS and promised closer supervision.

Racial politics have hamstrung the city’s ability to combat gangs, which have about 75,000 members locally, said Simpson, a former alderman.

Shifting Manpower

“Chicago never quite accepted the idea of taking police out of white areas and moving them to minority areas,” Simpson said. “The aldermen don’t want their areas underserved.”

Weis said 400 gang-squad officers still will be assigned to neighborhoods, while also being available for redeployment if violence flares elsewhere in the city.

Timuel Black, 89, a professor emeritus at City Colleges of Chicago, blamed increased murders in part on the demolition of dozens of high-rise public housing projects.

“Gang members are no longer concentrated in the neighborhoods where they once were,” Black said. “There’s terrible strife as they take over new territory.”

To contact the reporters on this story: John Lippert in Chicago at jlippert@bloomberg.netMario Parker in Chicago at mparker22@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 4, 2008 19:09 EST