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Weekly Deployment Meeting Highlights

In the Squad Room - Cell Phone Locates Robber

Every week, Linda Hansen attends the Evanston Police Department’s Deployment Meetings, takes notes on various topics and writes about other police-related matters of interest to ordinary citizens like her. 

All things considered, it was a pretty quiet week for crime in Evanston – four vehicle burglaries, three reports of stolen bikes, two package thefts, one attempted robbery and a report of a woman with a gun. Prepare yourself for a short read this week. 

Notable was the arrest of Evanston resident Tristan Nichols-Sanders, 18, for robbing a 15-year old male on 9/3 in the 800 block of Dobson. Nichols-Sanders and a juvenile offender approached him from behind around 8:30 PM, tackled him to the ground where they proceeded to kick and punch him before taking off with his phone and $25. Using the phone’s locator app, cops were able to trace the phone and apprehend both subjects.  Nichols-Sanders was charged with Robbery and Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. The juvenile was also charged with Robbery, a Class 2 Felony. 

Anti-Semitic messages were written on a sidewalk near Bridge and McCormick and graffiti, mostly honoring gangsta rapper and record producer Chief Keef, was seen in three locations – the 500 block of Ridge, the 1000 block of South Blvd and the 1000 block of Seward.  Chief Keef, formerly Chicagoan Keith Cozart, briefly lived in Highland Park before moving to Los Angeles in 2014. 

Now the rest of the news.  

Deployment Meeting – September 6, 2017

Past Week:

• Two tires and rims were removed from a 2005 Honda parked on the street in the 400 block of Dempster overnight on 8/31. (If this seems like a lot of work for not a lot of cash, see Inquiring Minds at the end of this article.)
• On 9/5, the trial of Wesley Woodson, 25, for the 2012 murder of Dajae Coleman began at the Skokie branch of the Cook County court. 
• The results of IDOT’s “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” Labor Day safety campaign are in. A total of 303 citations were issued, 152 for failure to wear a seat belt, 86 for cell phone use, 20 for speeding and 1 for driving under the influence.
• Patrol officers monitored school zone speed limits.
• Con artists continue to target senior citizens with phone scams. They use the ‘grandparent scam’ and other ruses to convince elders that money grams or prepaid credit cards are needed to rescue a stranded grandchild or post bail money.  
• It was another busy week for members of the Problem Solving Team. The 44th Citizen Police Academy Class has begun, with officers leading the sessions on 8/30 and 9/6. They were on hand for the NU/Nevada game on 9/2 and have initiated ‘walk-and-talks’ with NU students living in the adjacent off-campus neighborhoods.  They also attended the Refugee Task Force Meeting on 8/30 and on 8/31, a YMCA Men’s Leadership meeting and an OGA (Officer and Gentlemen Academy) planning session.  They were also present at the 9/4 1st Ward meeting.  

Looking Ahead:·   

• The Armored Car is being recharged
• NU’s completely solar powered “Enable” house - the result of 17 months of research, design and construction - will be moving in three pieces from its temporary home in a parking lot on Colfax to tractor-trailers headed to Denver’s Solar Decathalon at 10AM on 9/14.  You will want to avoid streets in the surrounding area.
• Get ready for the 4th Annual “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event on 10/8.  The one-mile walk event will take place at 11AM in Centennial Park and is hosted by Northwest CASA, a non-profit agency that provides free services to those affected by sexual assault and sexual abuse. As usual, EPD officers will be participating, some (men included) tottering the route in red high heels.  You can find out more information on how to join in and raise money for a worthy cause here. 
• PST officers will continue to monitor homeless and bike complaints in the downtown area and dogs-off-leash along the lakefront.  They’ll be on hand for the ETHS game on 9/8 and Streets Alive event on Main from 1-5 PM. On that note, Traffic Sergeant Tracy Williams advises the Main will be close for traffic from Dodge to Chicago. 

Inquiring Minds:  Some crimes have me scratching my head.  One is registration stickers that are removed from vehicles. Another relates to something that happened this week – the removal of wheels, tires and rims from parked cars.  It strikes me that this involves a lot of activity, easily detected, for maybe not a lot of money.  Here’s what I found out. Even cars with alarm systems are vulnerable. High-end tires, wheels and rims are often worth thousands of dollars to thieves. An experienced team of thieves can get the wheels off your car in minutes, leaving your vehicle on blocks and incapable of being driven.  Here’s how they do it:  Wheel thieves typically work in groups. A car must be elevated to get the tires and wheels off, and this is a dangerous task to attempt alone when you’re trying to do it quickly without getting caught. Thieves work together to jack a car up onto a set of concrete blocks. Once the car is in the air, the thieves each take a side and go to work on pulling the wheels off the vehicle. An experienced group can remove all four wheels in under ten minutes.  Your goal as a car owner is to put up barriers that make the process of wheel removal take as long as possible.  If a thief thinks that it will take too long to remove the tires from your car, or that the risk of getting caught is too high, he moves on to an easier vehicle.  Park your car in a closed garage if you can. Park in an area with a lot of traffic when out in public. Park in view of surveillance cameras whenever possible. Install a car alarm with sensors that attach to the wheels. The alarm detects when the car gets tilted, and the wheel sensors also detect when the wheels get tampered with. Turn your wheels when parking. This makes the wheels harder to remove, because they get stuck in the wheel well. Use wheel locks on each wheel, including your spare. The locks fit on each wheel and make the lug nuts extremely difficult to remove without a key. (It’s important never to lose the key, because you’ll need it if you ever get a flat tire.)

Please keep your questions coming.  Send them to Commander Joe Dugan and we’ll do our best to get you the answers. If you put In The Squad Room in the subject line, they’ll find their way to me.

The ON-GOING GUN BUYBACK PROGRAM allows Evanston residents to turn in an operational firearm to police at any time in exchange for $100. Residents can utilize this service by calling 311 or the Evanston Police Department non-emergency line at 847-866-5000. A police officer will pick up the unwanted firearm at the resident's address and present the resident with a voucher that can be exchanged for $100 at the city collector’s office located in the Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave. Firearms should not be brought to the police department, unless prior approval has been granted from a supervisor at the police department. An officer will call the resident after a request is made for the officer to come to a person's residence and retrieve the firearm.

What would you like to know about what the Evanston Police Department is doing to fight crime? Let us know if you have specific questions or concerns about issues in your neighborhood. Submissions are always welcome at police@cityofevanston.org or by calling the community strategies bureau at (847) 866-5019.   If you’d like to receive Evanston’s Daily Crime Report by email, you can subscribe here or view the Monthly Crime Statistics that are reported on a yearly basis to the FBI by clicking here.

If you would like to learn more about the Evanston Police Department, take an active role in Community Oriented Policing and join the ranks of over 900 graduates since 1995, please visit the Citizen Police Academy webpage and enroll now for the Fall 2017 class.   There is no cost to anyone who lives or works in Evanston. Getting to know your police force is essential in reducing crime, building trust in the community and serving the needs of the community.

The weekly deployment report is an informational bulletin prepared by a community member that keeps citizens informed about what police do on a weekly basis. Information contained in this report is not to be considered as a media/press release. Any information considered by a media source from this bulletin needs to be verified by an official from the department. This can be done by contacting the media line at 847-866-5026.