ALTHOUGH STREET STOPS BY CHICAGO POLICE DROPPED 80% AND ARRESTS BY 33%, MURDERS IN THE CITY SKYROCKET, "60 MINUTES" REPORTS SUNDAY, JAN. 1

Former CPD Superintendent Garry McCarthy in a 60 MINUTES Interview

A Study of All 25 Police Districts Reveal a Situation that the City's Former Police Superintendent Calls a "Huge Problem"

When 60 MINUTES went to Chicago to report on the alarming surge in murders, Bill Whitaker found an unusual trend that the city's former police superintendent calls a "huge problem." The number of times Chicago Police Officers stopped people on the street for questioning dropped by 80 percent and arrests were down a third in 2016 - this activity would usually rise with increase in violence. Whitaker's report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, Jan. 1 (7:30-8:30 PM, ET/7:00-8:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network.

In the six days 60 MINUTES spent in Chicago, 55 people were shot and 16 killed. More than 4,000 have been shot and more than 750 have been killed in the city this year-the number of murders is more than New York and Los Angeles combined. The falloff in police street stops over the same period worries former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. "When you have activity falling off the way it is and crime skyrocketing, that's a huge problem," says McCarthy, who left the department in late 2015. When told that some are calling the trend a crisis, McCarthy responds, "When people are dying, yes, there's crisis. No two ways about it." Watch the excerpt.

The fall-off in police activity is a result of many videos of police confrontations or shootings that were made public on social and mainstream media. The videos have fomented protests against police, leading many to speculate the officers are pulling back to avoid a harsh spotlight. Whitaker asks the new superintendent, Eddie Johnson, who allows his officers have been more "cautious," whether the fall-off is directly connected to the crime rate. "Well, you know, there may be some," he says, but the fall-off is more to do with stricter policies on stopping individuals and increased paperwork for stops brought on by ACLU scrutiny," says Johnson. "And the crime rate is the criminals and not his cops," he says, "... It's not what the police officers are not doing. It's more about what these... criminal offenders are doing."

A dozen beat cops who spoke to 60 MINUTES off camera say they have taken a step back. Former Chicago police officer Brian Warner, who was shot in the line of duty in 2011 and now counsels officers, explains, "You have a 911 call, you go to your 911 call. But if you're on-- aggressive patrol, when you're out looking for people breaking the law. That's not happening as much as it was," he tells Whitaker. "You say they are not being proactive," asks Whitaker. "No. They're not," responds Warner. "And how could you ask them to be? And why would you expect them to be?"

This worries McCarthy. "The police activity is horrific. Honestly. And there's not an excuse that could be made in my book," he says. "The noncompliance of the law is becoming legitimized. And the police are on their heels... .We're reaching a state of lawlessness," McCarthy tells Whitaker.

Johnson is hiring and promoting a thousand cops to address the crime spree and he says he would discipline an officer found to be intentionally not doing their job, but he defends his officers. "This is a tough job. It's a dangerous job. But it's also a noble job."

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