In the past few days, police have arrested suspects in two of Chicago’s most horrific murder cases last year.

Arrested last Friday was Deron Wolfe, 19, who was charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery in connection with the shooting death of Elgin teen Jesse Kendall in October outside the United Center. Kendall was on his way with some friends to see rapper Lil Durk perform; the tickets were a gift from Kendall to his girlfriend, a big event that turned into tragedy on Chicago’s streets.

Separately, Pullman resident Tommie Coleman, 22, was arrested Jan. 29. He was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths just over a year ago of Robert Boston, 16, and Monterio Williams, 17, right outside Innovations High School in the Loop, which the two attended. The killings in the heart of downtown during lunchtime shocked even this jaded city, given the location and the proximity to a school.

Others appear to have been involved in both these crimes, so it’s quite possible more charges will be filed. But it’s encouraging to see these initial arrests in two violent crimes that contributed mightily to the narrative of Chicago as lethally unsafe and where violent crime too often goes unpunished.

Two isolated cases aren’t evidence of a trend, but progress in these “heater” cases suggests to us that Chicago police are making some inroads in winning more public cooperation identifying alleged perpetrators of the gun-violence epidemic that continues to plague our city. Statistics, too, can be misleading. Still, Chicago police reported they cleared 323 homicides last year, and their homicide clearance rate reached 56%, its highest level since 2015.

The meter appears to be pointing up when it comes to making crime pay in Chicago. Credit for much of that must go to a more effective Chicago Police Department, and we believe a new Cook County state’s attorney determined to crack down on gun crimes will help immeasurably as well.

The significance of progress in cracking these two cases, too, is in how the incidents presented such starkly different aspects of Chicago’s public-safety challenges. The killing of Jesse Kendall was every suburban parent’s nightmare — their teenager heading into the city for a night out and never coming back home. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that Chicago’s crime issues have dissuaded some suburbanites from visits to the city for shows, concerts, meals and the like. Finding, prosecuting and punishing Kendall’s killers won’t erase that fear by itself, but consequences for those responsible would provide some measure of reassurance nonetheless.

Then, of course, there are the risks Chicago parents and their kids face in their everyday lives. Robert Boston and Monterio Williams were students, attending high school in the Loop of all places, and they were shot dead on the street in broad daylight. It’s taken a year to arrest and charge someone in that case; that feels like a long time. But the other way of looking at the time span between the crime and an arrest is that it demonstrates the persistence of the Chicago Police Department under Superintendent Larry Snelling.

Both these defendants, Deron Wolfe and Tommie Coleman, are innocent until proven guilty. But let their arrests hopefully serve notice to others armed and prowling Chicago’s streets in search of victims that law and order is in vogue again.

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