(WBBM Newsradio) -- In addition to the cost in human life, Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin said there is a severe financial impact.
“I think that is one aspect that we, as residents, really do not know,” she said at a news conference in North Lawndale with violence-prevention advocates.
The Crime Lab at the University of Chicago has an estimate, the treasurer said. They say every person who is shot creates about $1.5 million in costs.
Given that a little over 4,000 people were shot in Chicago last year, Conyears-Ervin said, the estimated cost of gun violence to the city was roughly $6 billion.
That’s about two-thirds of the annual city budget, she said.
The treasurer’s comments on gun violence came in the wake of a holiday weekend during which more than 100 people were shot across the city. She supports spending money on violence prevention.
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