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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.
In the Squad Room - Outreach and Outside
Evanston Borders: Interrupting Gang Violence
 Almost all of the Deployment Meetings take
place in the Squad Room on the first floor of Police Headquarters at 1454 Elmwood.
But this week, the meeting followedan earlier session with Evanston Police supervisory
staff from the quarterly management meeting in the Conference Room at Fire
Department headquarters around the corner at 909 Lake Street.
Since this meeting covered topics beyond the
usual scope of the weekly Deployment Meetings, a notable component was a presentation
by Kevin Brown who leads the City of Evanston’s six-person Youth and Young
Adult Division Outreach Team. By now,
most of you already know that the EPD focuses on gang violence through its
Mission One and Mission Two initiatives and its team of investigators in the
Special Operations Group, but what you probably didn’t know – like me - is that
the City of Evanston has its own cadre of interventionists.
These streetwise outreach workers work
one-on-one – on the sidewalks and in the neighborhoods – with at-risk youth
trying to escape the no-win realities of gang life: injury, death and probable
jail time. Some of the Outreach Workers have with trouble-with-the-law credentials
that their clients can relate to, but today they’re reaching teens and young
adults in our community right where they live. They’re connecting them with
services related to workforce training, health care and housing. One example: Working
with the Moran Center, the Division has processed more than 120 young Evanston
at-risk residents who are in the process of applying for Certificates of
Rehabilitation. According Brown and his crew: “We’re trying to show them that
they don’t need to go to the penitentiary to learn a lesson.”
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Deployment Meeting – Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Prior to This Week
- Looking at the crime map for the period of April 3-7, it appears that
little was happening. There were, of
course, some notable exceptions.
- Increased patrols and surveillance in South Evanston appears to be
impacting the series of armed and unarmed robberies in Beats 72 and 78. There were no incidents reported in this
period. Activity may be moving south of the Evanston border with an individual
arrested by the Chicago Police Department whose M.O. was similar to our
Evanston robberies.
- Intelligence reported two gang shootings – one at Howard & Paulina
in Chicago on April 6 in which an offender shot into a group of people,
injuring two and killing one and the other at a Rodeway Inn in Skokie last week
where a scuffle occurred, a shot was fired and two individuals suffered minor
injuries.
- By now, many Evanston residents are aware of an incident on Sunday,
April 6 in which a driver was involved in multiple offenses, including eluding
police, leaving the scene of an accident, reckless driving and 13
traffic-related citations. A cyclist
struck by the driver, 63-year old Annemarie O’Shaughnessy of Wilmette. A court
date is scheduled for April 21.
- Also on April 6, a walker discovered a woman’s body along rocks on the
lakeshore near Clark Square Park. The
EPD is conducting a death investigation to determine the identity of the
female, thought to be a Des Plaines woman who had abandoned her car nearby on
February 22.
Updates
- The EPD Armored Car will be deployed on the West Side of Evanston as
part of a Mission Two objective.
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Uniformed officers will maintain high visibility in south Evanston and
along the Chicago/Evanston border to monitor and intervene if necessary in the
rising tide of gang activity occurring in Rogers Park.
Also,
a new reminder to residents that drop off children and pick them up after
school. Numerous complaints regarding the violation of traffic laws, including
excessive speed, going the wrong way and using a handheld device while driving is
being addressed in both the early morning hours and afternoon by officers of
the Traffic Bureau with enforcement initiatives. Please abide by the law and
follow the proper signage that is posted.
This will make it safer for our children traveling to and from school in
addition to avoid being stopped by police and cited. Spring break ends soon and
with the return of school on Monday, April 14th residents will see a
higher police presence around different schools due to this initiative.
Inquiring Minds - How to Beat a Traffic Ticket
Now
that Spring has arrived, many of us are likely to be tooling around town, maybe
with the windows down, enjoying that first burst of fresh air and decent
weather. The more of us are driving
around, the more likely one of us will miss that No Right Turn on Red sign on
Oakton (as I did one year).
You
might feel that your skills of persuasion will help you talk the Officer out of
giving you a citation. You could try
the Hard Luck Story. The fact that you
haven’t had a ticket in 15 years. Crying might work. Plead ignorance. Well, I learned a lesson
from PST Officer Loyce Spells in one of our Citizen Police Academy classes. It was so valuable, I asked him to repeat it:
“You
will never win the battle at the window.
That’s what Traffic Court is for.
Remember, the officer is there to
enforce traffic safety. It’s NOT PERSONAL.”
And one other thing, “Remain in your car unless the officer tells you to
exit the vehicle. We don’t know you,
your motivations or these days, whether you have a license to carry a concealed
weapon.”
Follow
the Officer’s direction, behave respectfully and maybe you’ll get off with a
warning, depending on the violation. And
if not, tell it to the judge in Traffic Court. If you follow the rules and act
like an adult, the Court may simply send you to the online Traffic Safety
School or give you that break you are looking for. .
 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 residents’ 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 handled or brought to 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.
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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 Spring 12-week Citizen Police Academy just finished the half-way mark. 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 which starts in the end of August. There is no cost to anyone who lives or works in Evanston.
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