Chicago crime down 10 percent so far this year

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police say there was a 10.4 percent drop in total crime citywide in June compared to the same month last year.

Officials say that at the end of June the city had recorded fewer than 200 homicides for 2009, a 12.7 decrease from June 2008. Overall, violent crimes were down by 4.4 percent and property crimes had dropped by 12 percent.

At the same time, authorities say that so far this year officers have seized 4,031 guns, including 181 assault weapons. That's up from this time last year, when police had recovered 3,467 guns, of which 134 were assault weapons.

Chicago police also say they issued children nearly 2,600 curfew violations in June alone.