Police: August 2007 Archives

BY MIKE CETERA

A week after Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed money for the crime-fighting initiative Project CeaseFire, the state's auditor general has released a scathing report on the program, which is based in Chicago, but has a troubled start-up in Aurora.

The audit, and media reports, focus largely on the problems in Chicago. But Aurora's CeaseFire, championed by State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, is referenced throughout the report.

And the findings aren't flattering.

BY MIKE CETERA

A poster to this blog asked to see the most recent Aurora police contract, which expired March 5. The union and the city have not reached agreement on a new deal, but officers continue to work under the terms of the old contract. You can find a copy of the contract after the jump.

Some highlights:

-- "Each employee shall receive up to a maximum of one hundred eighty (180) calendar days of sick leave at his regular pay rate per separate illness. Provided, however, that no employee shall be eligible to receive said paid sick leave if the injury was contracted or incurred while engaged in occupation or employment other than with the Aurora Police Department. When any employee exhausts his sick leave, such leave may be extended at the approval of the Chief of Police upon application in writing by such employee. Approval of such extension shall not be unreasonably withheld. Further, notification of such approval and any extension shall be delivered by the Chief of Police to the Human Resources Department."

-- Union members cannot strike and cannot participate in a "work stoppage, slowdown, or withholding of services." The city cannot "lock out" union members.

-- Base salaries beginning in March 2006 were $59,113.60 annually for an officer with 6 months to 1 year on the job up to $75,379.20 for an officer with more than 25 years on the job. This does not account for overtime and shift differential pay.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Teens are going to drink whether or not parents condone it. Should we just lower the drinking age?

BY MIKE CETERA

Following a fatal crash earlier this year involving a number of Oswego teens, parents, legislators and community leaders have been looking at ways to keep our kids safe. Many have sought answers to how we can encourage or prevent teenagers from drinking.

But a recent Parade Magazine article features people who advocate just the opposite: Give kids as young as 18 "licenses" to drink.

Advocates of a lower drinking age argue it will help reduce the number of kids who end up drinking at unsupervised house parties.

CRAIG WATSON / BEACON NEWS
Members of the Aurora Police Department picket in front of City Hall on Tuesday.

BY MIKE CETERA

Just how ugly has the dispute between the Aurora police union and top city officials become? Both sides have taken to discussing personnel issues in public. In government, as in business, this almost never happens.

The union previously brought up disciplinary issues on a blog supported by its members. Now, with rank-and-file officers demonstrating outside City Hall, both the union and the city are letting other personnel issues go public.

The dirty laundry is really flying now.

BY MIKE CETERA

A letter writer criticizes the newspaper today for supporting the demolition of a house that Aurora police had been called to nearly 100 times in the past decade. Third item

Auroran Worth Hill argues that buying a gang house and demolishing it doesn't solve the problem. He's right, although we should sympathize with neighborhood residents who have had to put up with thugs living among them for so long.

BY MIKE CETERA

The Sun-Times over the weekend had an interesting piece analyzing traffic stop data. The paper found that "area police departments end up writing tickets for just 66 percent of all motorists they stop."

Some of the most lenient officers, the analysis found, patrol the streets of Geneva, where 21 percent of traffic stops result in tickets. Where are your chances the worst of getting out of a ticket? The Kane County town of Gilberts, where just one of the 1,511 traffic stops didn't result in a ticket.

That's one lucky motorist.

BY MIKE CETERA

Aurora resident Al Signorelli asks an important, if somewhat loaded, question in comparing the response to Planned Parenthood's new clinic with how the community responds to violence: When will residents show the same passion and become outraged when a young man or woman is slain?

From Signorelli's call to OpenLine:

While (abortion) always elicits passion on both sides, it totally amazes me that crime and violence, our safety, and most importantly that of our children, does not. Where are the protesters when the bullets are flying and people are killed on our streets? What about those lives? Where is the outrage?

BY MIKE CETERA

*** UPDATED: AUG 13

Some rank-and-file Aurora Police officers have been getting prickly with the brass recently. Their main issue, it seems, is their immense dislike for Police Chief Bill Powell and Mayor Tom Weisner.

Unfortunately, their beefs (personality clashes aside) haven't been clearly spelled out in public. Now the police union, or someone claiming to represent its members, is planning an informational picket outside City Hall.

Let's hope they actually say what's bothering them (SEE UPDATE BELOW).

BY DAVE PARRO

Despite some conflicting testimony, shady witnesses, and no murder weapon or physical evidence, a Kane County jury this afternoon delivered a guilty verdict in the first of Aurora's cold-case murders.

The conviction of Jose Salinas in a 2000 gang shooting bodes well for prosecutors, who still have the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in 22 other old murder cases still on the docket. They will have the same difficult task in convicting the other 31 suspects as they did with Salinas just because of the nature of cold cases.

Each jury will obviously be different, but this verdict should give prosecutors and the Aurora Police Department confidence as they prepare for the other cases and make even more arrests.

BY MIKE CETERA

He once threatened violence against police, but for years now he's been working for them. He once held the titles "enforcer" and "terminator" as a member of an Aurora street gang. Now he goes by the less menacing title of "informant."

Orlando Rivera is no angel. Yet he's one of the men helping law enforcement officials seek to close long cold murder cases in Aurora. This week he testified for the prosecution in a murder case from 2000.

Make no mistake, Rivera isn't doing this simply because he's had a change of heart about being a gang member. Court records show authorities have forgiven past crimes and have paid him handsomely for his services.

Rivera is a clear example of the type of people police need to cultivate to make a case in gang crimes. It's a game cops must play with caution.

BY DAVE PARRO

A second victim has come forward and admitted to police he was scammed by a woman posing as a faith healer in Aurora. The two reports both involved a pregnant Hispanic female going by the name Angelica who promised treatment or blessing and then disappeared with large amounts of cash -- in the first case, $30,000.

That's quite a bill for a bad back, even if "Angelica" had cured the 45-year-old Aurora man. The victim told police he saw an advertisement for the woman's services on a flier posted at a grocery store in the 600 block of East New York Street. He went to address listed, dropped off the money, and was told to return the next day. Guess what happened next?

Unfortunately, this appears to be a fairly common scam in Hispanic communities across the United States because of a widespread belief in "curanderos."