■ Murders in Chicago are down by more than 100 in 2017 but remain devastatingly high.

CHICAGO — After the deadliest year in two decades, the first half of 2017 seemed just as grim in Chicago as homicides remained devastatingly high, raising fears that the “spike” in violence had become a new normal for the city.

Then in the second half of the year, homicides plummeted, particularly in two of the city’s most violence-plagued neighborhoods, contributing to about a 15 percent overall drop in killings over last year.

In 2016, Chicago logged more than 700 homicides and over 4,000 shooting victims. This year’s totals will be below both of those tallies. Through Tuesday, 644 people were slain in Chicago, compared with 754 during the same period last year, a drop of about 15 percent, according to Chicago police statistics. That represents the largest single-year drop in homicides since 2004.

The number of people wounded and killed by gunfire dropped by about 18 percent to 3,543 from 4,327, according to the Chicago Tribune’s statistics through Wednesday.

Some are not enthusiastic about the drop. The Rev. Ira Acree, a West Side pastor, pointed to a decline in the city’s African-American population, including the Austin community where his church is located, as a sign of how many people are fed up with the city’s violence.

“People are running out of the city like wildfire, and we’re celebrating that we don’t have 700 people who got killed, we’ve got 600,” he said. “Give me a break.”

Even with the late-year drop, Chicago’s homicide total remains the highest of any U.S. city, with more killings than New York and Los Angeles combined. In New York, a city with more than three times the population of Chicago, 278 people were slain through Dec. 17. Los Angeles listed 271 homicides through Dec. 16.

Chicago is not the nation’s leader in homicides per capita, however. Smaller cities, including Baltimore and New Orleans, have higher homicide rates, according to statistics from mid-December.

Teresa Crawford The Associated Press Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson cited new technology and tactics in crime-plagued neighborhoods and suggested that police relations with the community were improving to explain the decrease in homicides in the city.