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Every week, ordinary citizen and Freelance Reporter Linda Hansen attends the Evanston Police Department’s Deployment Meetings and takes notes on the various agenda topics. Below is her report for the week.
In the Squad Room - Elevating the Telephone Prank to a Federal Crime
 We all remember, with some
embarrassment, the telephone pranks of our middle-school years. These, of course, were sprung on unsuspecting
victims in the days before good manners, grown-up responsibilities and Caller
ID. Today, serial offenders, not tweens,
are advancing the game in a practice known as “swatting”. When Detective Santillo described a recent
incident and a trend that has shifted the target from Hollywood celebrities to
everyday people, it sent me straight to the FBI to find out
more.
Here’s how it works: Individuals make
frantic hoax calls to 911 to draw a response from law enforcement and sometimes
even SWAT teams (hence the name). They
use technology that masks the originating phone number (theirs) and in its
place the telephone number of the victim.
This unleashes a chain of events that sends law enforcement (guns drawn,
bullhorn at the ready) and a convoy of vehicles with flashing lights to the
victim’s front door.
In the past, the victim might have been
an A-Lister. Today, offenders may be extracting revenge on someone or just
looking for bragging rights in calling a Bomb Squad to a public facility,
especially in the wake of 21st century terrorist threats. The FBI
believes that most swatters are serial offenders. One example: In 2009, swatter Matthew
Weigman, then 19, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for a string of swatting
offenses, including a bogus claim that he was holding a girl and her father at
gunpoint.
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Deployment Meeting – February 25, 2014
Prior to This Week
In spite of what seemed like an
exciting crime week for this Ordinary Citizen, it was actually, a relatively
quiet week for criminal activity. There were, on the other hand, a number of
arrests.
- Deshawn Gillette was arrested in connection with
the February 14 armed robbery of a couple leaving St. Francisco Hospital. This is the first arrest in the recent series
of south Evanston armed robberies.
- An Evanston Police patrol unit conducted a
routine traffic stop and recovered a stolen .357 magnum revolver from offender
John Bamberg. He was charged with four
felonies and one misdemeanor.
- On February 25, Evanston Police Officers
arrested an individual in connection with a Craigslist incident involving the sexual
abuse of a juvenile.
- More good news:
Flyers distributed by the EPD alerted residents to a credit card scammer. The offender was arrested with help from local
residents.
- There were two incidents involving firearms in
south Evanston, one attempted armed robbery on the 600 block of Sheridan Road
and an aggravated assault near Seward and Elmwood. Both occurred on February 23.
A perplexing
“Chocolate Caper” report from the prior week in which an individual believed
she was the target of stalking behavior when she received Valentines Days
chocolates from a stranger turned out to be a simple mistake in which the innocent
shipper was thought to be a person of interest.
Case closed.
Looking Ahead
-
Chief Eddington restated the value of the
investigative stop (“stop and frisk”) policy in removing firearms from known
criminals. Since the past deployment, 1
illegal weapon was seized from a convicted felon.
- Spring thaw? The Snow Command is ready to roll
in anticipation of more snow expected over the weekend.
Inquiring Minds
Here’s the week’s question – and
Commander Parrott’s response.
 What is the role of the Howard
Street station?
Commander Parrott: It’s not a police station. It’s known as the Howard Street Outpost and
was originally placed there in July 2001 to offer a greater degree of police
presence in the neighborhood. At the time,
there was a lot more activity that need police attention that affected quality
of life and crime issues.
Those have decreased over the
years and that’s been the result of better policing and excellent
citizen engagement. Citizens are very
involved with strong neighborhood and merchant organizations. Brummel Park Neighbors is one of the oldest neighborhood
groups. They’re extremely active and very involved with Alderman Rainey to make
Howard Street better and safer.
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 The current boom in economic
development there has also been a plus. We’re seeing upscale establishments and
more are coming. The public surveillance cameras have been of assistance to
help reduce crime too.
Are there police officers there
around the clock?
Two officers from our Problem
Solving Team keep offices there but all of our officers have 24-hour access to
it. Citizens can meet officers there for reports or just to provide
information. The facility is also used as a polling place during election time.
The Howard Street Business Association meets there and it’s also the location
for 8th Ward Aldermanic Meetings.
Are there others like it?
There was an Outpost at Dempster
and Dodge Plaza, but it’s no longer open since Dominick’s closed. Howard Street
is the only current Outpost, but we do provide additional police presence at
the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center due to the high volume of community activity
there. We like to be able to engage with
the residents and especially the youth. In fact, our PST team regularly attends youth basketball games at the Center.
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 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.
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 The next 12-week Citizen Police Academy will be starting Wednesday, March 5. Due to a very popular response from the public, the session is full. If you’d like to learn more about the Evanston Police Department, take an active role in Community Oriented Policing and join the ranks of 800 graduates since 1995, please visit www.cityofevanston.org/cpa and plan ahead to enroll in the Fall 2014 class.
There is no cost to anyone who lives or works in Evanston.
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