Tuesday, June 17, 2025   |   View in browser

Weekly Deployment Meeting Highlights

In this post, a community member who sits in on the Evanston Police
Department’s weekly Deployment Meeting, shares notes on the topics discussed and writes about public safety matters of interest to people who work or live in Evanston.

Teen Partying and Public Safety

Let's save the red cups for when they're a little older

It’s official. Summer is here. On May 31, teens were dispersed from a Lighthouse Beach party; this was Evanston’s version of a Teen Takeover.

There was an event scheduled for Lighthouse Beach at 7:00 p.m. on the evening of June 7. In an attempt to keep the details secret and thwart law enforcement, the location was shared only through private messaging and word of mouth. In the end, the event never materialized.

However, there was teen drama in the 600 block of Howard, where a large crowd gathered. EPD received several reports of teens fighting. It appeared most of what happened was over prior to police arrival, and officers dispersed the crowd that remained.

EPD does its best to keep track of these pending events, hoping to deploy resources ahead of time and discourage the event from taking place. 

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Know Evanston’s curfew ordinance. It’s all right here in Inquiring Minds at the end of this post.

For the third week in a row, attempts have been made, this one successful, to fleece Evanston seniors of (tens of) thousands of dollars. This time, a 76-year-old victim was advised by scammers that her bank account had been compromised, and she needed to convert her accounts to bitcoin and then transfer them to the fraudsters for safekeeping. She was relieved of $102,350.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: We all know seniors. Some of us are seniors. Please do what you can to stay informed and safe. Make sure to share what you know with others. Have a conversation. There’s a motherlode of helpful information on the Internet.

Other incidents discussed at the meeting follow.

Weekly Crime Map

Click to enlarge

Deployment Presentation – June 11, 2025 

Arrest

• On June 9, contact was made with a female whose former partner was in the process of violating an order of protection. Officers responded to the address and placed the man into custody after a brief struggle. He was charged with two outstanding Cook County warrants, a resisting arrest charge, and possession of a controlled substance.
• On June 5, a female with an active warrant was observed in the 1900 block of Dempster. She provided a false name and struggled with officers before being taken into custody.
• A victim reported that his neighbor approached him with clenched fists, causing him to fear injury. The incident occurred in the presence of the victim’s 3-year-old son. The assailant was also found to be in violation of an order of protection (with the victim as a protected party). He was charged with assault and VOOP.

Battery - Officers responded to the Hilton on June 10 around 2:30 p.m. to investigate an incident. An employee reported that a male subject made her feel uncomfortable. He eventually followed her into an elevator, where he grabbed her right arm and kissed it three times. The employee fled to the sixth floor, where she was able to call for help. Officers were unable to locate the man but have identified him.

Burglary

Garage Burglary – A garage in the 2100 block of Darrow was left unlocked on June 10.  Two mopeds and a bike were reported missing.

Motor Vehicle

• A vehicle parked in the 1900 block of Lee was reported rummaged on June 6. It’s unclear if anything was missing.
• Police were called to the 2000 block of Lee on June 6 around 3:30 a.m. for a report of a subject entering a 2015 Toyota Camry. Police found the vehicle ransacked, but nothing as reported stolen. The resident’s doorbell camera video didn’t capture the trespass.
• On June 6, a victim reported her Toyota Prius’s driver’s side door open in the 1200 block of Pitner. Nothing was reported missing.
• On June 5, a Ford Escape was burglarized in the 2300 block of Lee. Work keys were reported missing.

Deceptive Practices

Citi Bank reported they discovered the ATM in the bank’s vestibule had been tampered with. A device had been installed to divert cash from customers using the ATM to fraudsters. It was identified, removed, and turned over to the EPD on June 4. The bank’s internal investigation is ongoing.

Graffiti – Graffiti was seen in several locations throughout Evanston, all on stop signs.

Motor Vehicle Theft

Stolen

• A victim reported his Mercedes E300 stolen sometime between June 6 and June 7 in the 700 block of Sheridan.

Recovered

• EPD officers located a BMW stolen out of Rolling Meadows in the 2200 block of Madison. RMPD officers arrived on scene, and took custody of the vehicle.

Person Shot – The Evanston man charged in the June 5 shooting at Evanston Hospital has been charged with attempted first degree, aggravated battery, discharge of a firearm, aggravated battery to a police officer, and unlawful possession of a weapon. After a detention hearing, he is being held in the Cook County Jail.  

Traffic Crash – On June 5 around 9:30 p.m., EPD responded to a traffic crash in the 800 block of Austin involving a motorized scooter that hit a curb. A passenger, who was pregnant, was ejected and sustained a head injury. Fortunately, she and her baby were not seriously injured. Officers discovered that the scooter lacked a license plate and its VIN was untraceable. The man’s driving privileges had been suspended three times. He was transported to Saint Francis Hospital for blood and urine testing and was issued multiple citations, including causing injury and driving while suspended, with additional charges pending lab results.

Weapons Related

Person with a Gun – On June 4, officers responded to the Valli Produce parking lot for a call about a man with a gun. They identified a subject at the scene who confessed to having a toy gun in his waistband. The realistic-looking Orbeez toy gun (see Random Notes below) was confiscated.

Shots Fired

• Around 5:30 p.m. on June 7, a caller reported several juveniles near Custer and Dobson harassing a teen. The caller heard the sound of a gunshot, but officers at the scene were unable to locate any evidence.
• Two callers heard shots fired in the 100 block of Clyde. Another reported shots in the Juneway Terrace area, but officers were unable to find anything of evidentiary value at either location.

Random Notes

This week’s trivia: “Orbeez” guns are occasionally mentioned in the Deployment Meeting. They’re usually associated with some form of juvenile mischief. Since I didn’t know what they were, I looked it up. Here’s what they are: Designed to look like real guns, Orbeez guns often have a realistic appearance (which is what makes them so dangerous). They are a toy that uses water-based projectiles, which are small, absorbent beads that swell when soaked.

No, you didn’t miss last week’s INSIDER. EPD was busy pushing out information about the Evanston Hospital, so hard news preempted our regularly scheduled programming.

Inquiring Minds: Teens and Curfew Laws

At some point, we parents need to start extending new freedoms to our teenagers. It’s hard. In my case, it was allowing my almost 15-year-old daughter to walk to the Evanston fireworks and back with friends. “Be home at 10:30”, I said. It’s about a 25-minute walk from where we live. 

She wasn’t home at 10:00 or 10:30. She wasn’t answering her cell phone either. When she called around 10:45, she said she was having trouble with her phone (“It’s janked up” is what she actually said) and it was too dark to see the street signs. Maybe I would have come up with the same lame stories when I was that age, but I doubt it. Suffice it to say that when she waltzed in at 11:15, there were fireworks of a different nature. In addition to my rants, I reminded her, “There is a curfew in Evanston, you know.”

It's 11 years later, and Evanston still enforces a teen curfew ordinance outlined in Title 9, Chapter 6, Section 9‑6‑1 of its municipal code. The law applies to minors, defined as individuals under the age of 17.

From Sunday through Thursday nights, curfew spans from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning, while on Fridays and Saturdays it shifts slightly later to 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

There are some exceptions:

• A minor accompanied by a parent, guardian, or responsible adult aged 21 or older.
• A teen running an errand at a parent’s instruction.
• A youth attending or returning from a supervised activity (school, religious, or recreational).
• Teens exercising First Amendment rights—such as attending a protest.
• Emancipated minors or those legally married.

Enforcement can be reactive or proactive. The curfew ordinance can be a useful tool to thwart crimes that minors might be involved in. Additionally, if minors comply with curfew and are home, they are less likely to be the victims of a late-night crime. 

Minors and their parents or guardians can face fines, or community service may be substituted. Establishments that allow minors on their premises past curfew can also be fined.

Evanston’s curfew law attempts to safeguard minors while allowing a measure of freedom – but with clear rules and exceptions. Prevention rather than punishment is the approach. Penalties are designed to deter repeat violations, with responsibility shared among minors, parents, and businesses.

Send us your questions. What would you like to know? We’ll respond with an answer in the next issue or two. Comments and suggestions are welcome too. Contact us here.

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.