Here’s a really cool example of Chicago Police and residents working together to catch a criminal. The crime isn’t a huge one, but it’s interesting how this worked:
The North Edgebrook community…police and residents were faced with an unusual problem: someone was vandalizing neighborhood signs and spreading large roofing nails at a busy intersection.
The crimes were apparently in response to a new Target store on Touhy Avenue, which had some residents concerned about increased traffic. 16th District police say someone took his concern too far. “The community kept bringing it up at beat meetings that an individual was throwing nails on Touhy Avenue,” resulting in numerous flat tires and a traffic safety hazard, explains Commander Harry Tannehill.
The district put out extra patrols, and residents set up their own surveillance at the intersection of Touhy and Melvina. “They couldn’t allocate undercover officers around the clock, week in and week out, to try and apprehend this guy,” says resident Myles McDarrah, who shared surveillance duties with John Melaniphy III of the local civic association. By monitoring times when the intersection was clear and when there were nails, the two residents narrowed down the hours when the culprit would most likely strike. That allowed police to allocate their resources more effectively. On the third night of a special mission, tactical officers caught a 47-year-old neighborhood man in the act and arrested him. With the district’s Court Advocacy program now involved, he will have to face his neighbors in court.
The City of Chicago portal seems to embed session information in the URLs, which would make it hard to create a permanent link. Try this:
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