Supt. Garry McCarthy began his policing career as a patrolman in the New York City Police Department. By 2000, he was the department’s principal crime strategist, charged with running its famed Compstat program. He went on to run the Newark Police Department, where crime saw a steady decline during his tenure. And crime has been, overall, on the decline here in Chicago too. Crime, overall, is down. But the murder rate is up more than 50 percent from the same period a year ago. Though as Supt. McCarthy told Steve Edwards on the Afternoon Shift Thursday, “murder” and “homicide” are different—and not the most important numbers when analyzing crime statistics.