Friday June 26, 2020   |   View in browser

Weekly Deployment Meeting Highlights

Every week, Linda Hansen attends the Evanston Police Department’s Deployment Meetings, takes notes on the topics discussed and writes about other police-related matters of interest to the people who work and live in Evanston.

SPECIAL NOTICE:  Please read the City of Evanston's Police Policies and Training FAQ addressing questions and concerns from the community, as well as Evanston Police Chief Releases Statement on George Floyd. While In the Squad Room features are not considered an official media/press release, ITSR wants its readers to know their questions and concerns are respected. 

This Week's Crime + Inside the Property Room

By the time you read this, we will be in Phase 4 of Governor Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan. This signaled a good time for me to contact Crime Analyst Marianne Ring and return to a brief recap of the past week’s incidents and notices. (When we’ll physically be back in the squad room for deployment is anyone’s guess.) Consider this the at-home version.

Notable, according to her, were three strong-arm robberies, several bicycle thefts, two bonafide shots fired calls and a vehicle theft. There were 82 calls for service over the weekend related to fireworks complaints. (See Fireworks and the Fourth at the end of this post.)

She also noted that Crime appears to be increasing in the 24th District (Rogers Park). Since May 1st, there have been 3 homicides and 4 additional shootings.

Click to Enlarge

If there are topics of interest to you, please send them our way.

Past Week

• Between 6/18 and 6/19, there were four burglaries to motor vehicles in northwest Evanston (Beat 75). All of the vehicles were unlocked.
• A burglar attempted to break into a home in the 600 block of Custer by cutting a screen on 6/19.
• On 6/19, around 11:30 PM, Patrol Units responded to the 1900 block of Green Bay Road for a man with a gun call. The victim reported that he was parked in traffic at Green Bay and Ashland when he was approached by an individual holding a black handgun. The victim drove off and called the police. The area was checked with negative results.
• Patrol Units responded to the 1800 block of Lake on 6/20 at 2 AM for a report of shots fired. Police observed bullet holes in a tan 2003 Chevy Impala. Additional ballistic evidence was located in the street. The owner of the vehicle told cops he was standing on his front porch when a silver Honda drove by. Ninety minutes later, police located a vehicle matching the description. A search of the vehicle revealed a Sig Sauer P365 handgun under the driver’s seat and a loaded Champion AK style rifle under the passenger seat. 29 year old local resident Zachary Cohen was arrested and charged with unlawful use of a weapon. 
• On 06/20 at 5:00 AM, Units responded to the 1600 block of Simpson for a dispute between neighbors. Upon arrival, contact was made with a victim who told police that he got into an argument with his neighbor who pulled a gun on him. Police contacted the offender who admitted possession of a Rossi .38 Special. Sabrina Hill was taken into custody and charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
• Units responded to the 1100 block of Pitner on 06/20 around 8:45 PM to a report of a fight in progress. Upon arrival, contact was made with various members of a family who advised that they were involved in an altercation with another family group who displayed handguns. Members of that family fled the scene before cops arrived.
• On 06/23 at approximately 1:30 PM, Patrol Units responded to the 900 block of Sherman for a report of a man with a gun. A single gunshot was heard by the caller. Responding Officers located a subject matching the caller’s description. No weapon was located on the subject or in the area. However, a bullet was recovered from a concrete wall in the area.

• Four bikes were stolen between 6/16 and 6/22. Two were secured to bicycle racks.
• There were three robberies in the past deployment period:
• A victim stated that he was putting groceries into his vehicle in the 2400 block of Howard when an unknown subject approached him and demanded his keys. The victim refused, and the subject attempted to punch him in the face. The subject left in a dark-colored sedan.
• On 6/23, a victim stated that he had been robbed in the 100 block of Asbury. Two unknown subjects approached the victim, struck him in the head and face, taking his cell phone and $200 in cash. The victim was treated at St. Francis Hospital.
• Two female victims reported they were being verbally harassed by a group of 8-10 juvenile subjects as they left a restaurant near Howard and Ridge around 9 PM on 6/23. The group physically attacked the pair in the 800 block of Dobson before fleeing.
• On 6/22, a crook broke into a fitness club in the 300 block of Howard and made off with an unspecified amount of cash.
• Sometime during the overnight hours of 6/23, unknown subject(s) took a white 2018 Honda Pilot from a residence in the 3200 block of Thayer. The vehicle was left unsecured with a key fob inside. Note: Crime Analyst Ring said that vehicles stolen from our area are, almost without exception, left unsecured with a key or key fob left inside.

Inside the Property Bureau

OK, I didn’t actually get inside the Property Room, but I did corral, for the second time in a month, Mike Wasowicz who, as Management Analyst for Forensic Services/Property Bureau, is responsible for it, along with Property Officer Susan Morgan.

I have visions of the actual space, in the basement of EPD headquarters on Elmwood Avenue, looking something like the archives in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I’ll let you know whether I’m right when we get to Phase Five.

About: The Property Bureau is responsible for the safekeeping, storage and disposal of property recovered from arrestees or as evidence in criminal investigations. To a far lesser extent, it’s also a lost-and-found for a wide spectrum of various items.  According to Mike, there are about 60,000 items in the Property Bureau. Since 2008, an inventory tracking system was put in place to organize the material, but he told me that the previous paper-based system still accounts for a portion of the total and is more difficult to estimate. He said that “some of the evidence dates back to the 1970s on some serious cases”.

The vast majority of the items, as high as 99%, are criminally-related and include guns, drugs, knives, clothing, tools, bats, electronics – “Pretty much everything”, according to him. All of it is inventoried in the Property Room. Mike said the most bizarre item in the Property Room is a rocket launcher, which, when you think about it, is probably the most lethal portable weapon (at about 15 pounds) imaginable.

News You Can Use: Turning our attention to the small percentage of found items in the Property Room, here’s what you can do to recovers yours. First of all, every reasonable attempt is made to reunite items with their rightful owners. You can:

• File a report of your lost or stolen item(s) with the EPD. That way, if an item matching your description comes into the possession of the Property Bureau, they’ll know who to call. You can file a report in person or over the phone 847 866-5000 (police non-emergency). 
• Even if you didn’t file a report, you can call the Property Bureau during their normal business hours – Monday through Friday, 9 AM – 3 PM. The direct number is 847 866-5029. They receive a couple of calls like this every week. 
• Check online. EPD uses a third party service that displays the most recent (21 days) of found items. This list is updated daily and allows you to easily contact the EPD by email if you believe an item is yours. (See image below) Here's the link.
• To retrieve your property, you will need to call the Property Bureau to schedule an appointment.

You’ll be required to provide identification in the form of a government issued photo ID (driver’s license, state ID card, passport, etc.).  Additional identifying description or other proof of ownership may be required.  

Here's what the online listing looks like

Any usable property eligible for disposal is transferred to a public Internet auction service. Currently, the EPD uses the services of Propertyroom.com to auction off property that has remained unclaimed for 30 days or more. It’s an ongoing auction available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and explains why, to our dismay, there is no longer a fun Police Bike Auction. Surprisingly, the annual revenue generated by the auction doesn’t add up to much – maybe $1200-2000 a year.

Fireworks and the Fourth

Some people, much to the consternation of the populace and some fearful canines, have decided to start the holiday celebration a little early in light of the City’s canceling all events. Every day or so, there are several loud explosions (that’s right – they sound like bombs going off) that frighten the residents, sending them to Nextdoor to ask, “What was that? Did you hear that? What was it? Where did it come from? Has anyone called the police?”. For those of us without military or law enforcement training, a firecracker or a cherry bomb sounds like a gunshot. An M-80 sounds like a pipe bomb.

Chicago reports that calls like these are up 700%. The EPD has been receiving a lot of these calls lately. This past Monday, Chief Cook addressed the issue in the City Council. He said that the EPD started to receive noise complaints about fireworks in May. It’s his opinion that the cancellation of the city’s Fourth of July celebration has unleashed this year’s DIY pyrotechnics. There have been 168 calls to date, 142 of those since the first of June. To address the growing concerns of residents, and to promote public safety, the Patrol Division and the Special Operations Group will respond to all calls for service. Hotspots, where many of the calls have originated, will see more police presence.

Here’s the good news for law-abiding citizens: the rules are easy to remember. You won’t have to guess at what’s legal because NO FIREWORKS ARE LEGAL IN EVANSTON.

Evanston City Code, Title 4, Chapter 4, Section 4-4-2 (a) 5602.1 states that "The possession, manufacture, storage, sale, handling and use of fireworks and explosives are prohibited except as approved by the Fire Official." It goes on to name names: “firecrackers, torpedoes, skyrockets, Roman candles, sparklers and other devices of similar construction; any device containing any explosive or flammable compound; and any tablets and other devices containing any explosive substance.” Yes, that includes snakes, smokes and snappers.

And here’s the bad news for scofflaws: In addition to provoking the ire of your neighbors, you’ll be handed a $150 fine for violating the ordinance.

CORRECTION TO LAST WEEK’s POST: It was Officer Enjoli Daley and not Sergeant Scott Sophier who was responsible for the relaunch of the Police Explorer Program. Sergeant Sophier was its first Facilitator and still holds that role today. Apologies to both for letting a last-minute revision evaporate in the ethers.

Gun Buyback Program

The Ongoing 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.  

Subscribe to Evanston’s Daily Crime Report by email or view the Monthly Crime Statistics that are reported on a yearly basis to the FBI. Take a look at the Evanston Police Department Dashboard.

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.  

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.