Recently in Police Category

BY MIKE CETERA

Remember the great ticket picket of 2007?

Some members of the Aurora police union, reportedly upset over a plan to give a city commission investigating citizen complaints subpoena power over the police, decided to stop writing (or at least slow down) the number of tickets issued to motorists.

The police brass initially complained about the ticket picket, but later pooh-poohed the protest. Meanwhile, union President Wayne Biles told the public, essentially, move along, there was nothing to see here.

"There has been no change in our commitment to serve and protect the citizens of Aurora," Biles wrote in a letter to the editor. "Contrary to what The Beacon News inferred, we are busier than ever, making more traffic stops than last year and having more contacts with the public." (emphasis added)

Wrong.

BY MIKE CETERA

On the same day Aurora saw its second consecutive day in which a bank was robbed, the FBI released its latest data on the prevalence of the crime.

Interesting nugget: While robberies are spread out over the week, the day with the most bank robberies is Friday, according to fourth quarter 2007 data. Some 324 bank robberies nationwide occurred on a Friday . The time of day with the most robberies: 9 to 11 a.m.

Here's one explanation:

"Banks used to have more money on Fridays because, historically, it was payday. It's probably still a perception, but it's not necessarily true today," says FBI agent Ken Neu.

"As for 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., it's the beginning of the banking day, and it's perceived that there's still a lot of money in the bank as opposed to the end of the day in terms of hard cash. Again, probably more a perception than a reality."

BY MIKE CETERA

The FBI's preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2007 is in, and while the numbers for Aurora aren't a surprise since the city released its data months ago, it is interesting to see what's happening in other Illinois cities with populations greater than 100,000.

The FBI cautions against the practice of comparing crime numbers between cities even though the agency makes it so very tempting to do:

Comparisons lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents. Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction.

With that warning in mind, let's look at what happened in 2007 elsewhere.

BY MIKE CETERA

Each year, without fail, the Schaumburg-based Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists comes out with a list ranking DUI arrests in Northern Illinois communities. Each year, without fail, Aurora falls at or near the bottom of towns with 200 or more arrests.

In 2007, Aurora police made 223 DUI arrests, 39th among the towns surveyed. In 2006, the APD made 246 arrests, placing the department dead last in terms of the number of DUIs per sworn officer. Read more on how Aurora compared in prior years here.

In previous years, when these annual numbers have been released, the APD has maintained its officers are vigilant about drunken drivers. I'm guessing -- and this is only a guess -- the department has bigger fish to fry (read: gangs), which is why Aurora's neighbor to the east consistently makes hundreds more DUI arrests each year.

BY MIKE CETERA

So, Joe Birkett's son got caught in a pot bust. So what? Now we have confirmation his family isn't infallible either.

The arrest of Nicholas T. Birkett would have been relegated to the police blotter -- at best -- if he wasn't the son of the DuPage County state's attorney.

Instead, Joe's son becomes just another statistic in this country's "war on drugs." We are left to either empathize or mock a politician and his son.

BY MIKE CETERA

Here's something nobody is talking about: Shootings are down, way down, in Aurora this year.

Through Wednesday, shootings had dropped by more than 50 percent when compared to the same time period last year, according to Aurora Police Department statistics.

The numbers
25 shootings between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2008
53 shootings between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2007

Those figures put Aurora on pace to record 75 shootings this year. Wow.

BY MIKE CETERA

On its face, charging a kid with a crime that could land him in prison for as long as 30 years for lighting a roll of toilet paper on fire seems a bit like overkill. People convicted of reckless homicide have been given less time.

But when you consider what could have happened after the 17-year-old allegedly started a blaze in a bathroom earlier this week at West Aurora High School, such a penalty seems far less extreme.

BY DAVE PARRO

While the conviction Monday of six Insane Deuces gang members made headlines in Aurora, it got little attention elsewhere. It should have, however, because proving conspiracy might be the most powerful tool police and prosecutors have in bringing down street gangs here.

Federal prosecutors successfully used racketeering laws to prove a conspiracy to commit murder and sell drugs in Aurora over a period of time. Some of the gang members will be facing life sentences under strict federal sentencing guidelines.

It's not the first time the RICO Act, originally used against the Mafia, has been used against street gangs. But it's a new tool in Aurora, and the guilty verdicts this week could be a sign of things to come.

BY MIKE CETERA

Ninety-nine days into the new year and the city of Aurora has yet to record a murder for 2008. Something to celebrate? Let's let recent history be the judge.

The city's first 2007 murder was recorded on Jan. 21. No charges have been filed in the death of 15-year-old Oscar Rodriguez.

The city's first 2006 murder was recorded on Jan. 6. A man was sentenced to 70 years in prison last year for the murder of 28-year-old Antoine "Tyrell" Bell.

In fact, the city has not been murder free this late into the new year since 1987, a year that saw just one homicide.

BY MIKE CETERA

CYNIC: Having defeated all other scourges upon mankind, the city of Aurora -- with an assist from the politicians in Springfield who need fodder for re-election -- has decided to tackle a problem it doesn't have: meth.

OPTIMIST: They acknowledged meth production isn't a problem here yet. They're just being proactive. Assistant Police Chief Greg Thomas said "this is a preventive measure to make sure it is not a problem here."

CYNIC: Proactive? I believe the term you're looking for is political opportunism. They use a recent bust -- in Chicago -- to make themselves look current and tough on crime. And, as an added bonus, they might scare some voters into believing something that isn't true.