Police: December 2007 Archives

BY MIKE CETERA

Be careful out there.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released new data demonstrating the increase in alcohol-related traffic deaths over the holidays. It's no surprise, really, but numbers tend to solidify what we already know.

Secretary Peters explained that data released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that from 2001-2005, an average of 36 fatalities occurred per day on America’s roadways as a result of crashes involving an alcohol impaired driver. That number increases to 45 per day during the Christmas period and jumps to 54 per day over the New Year’s holiday, she added.

Thirty-eight percent of all traffic fatalities during the Christmas period occurred in crashes involving a drunk driver or motorcycle rider and 41 percent during the New Year’s period, Peters said. This compares with 31 percent for the year as a whole.

Read the analysis here.

Of course, police agencies promise to be extra vigilant during the holidays when it comes to arresting drunk drivers. But we know some departments are more vigilant than others.

BY MIKE CETERA

Some posters over at a new blog discussing Aurora police union issues raise an interesting question about the department's K-9 unit: What happened to it?

The department has not replaced two dogs that died over the last year or so. See their stories here and here. And the city's 2008 budget doesn't appear to fund the unit.

BY MIKE CETERA

You have to imagine police and prosecutors would have been pretty nervous had a jury found Angel "Doc" Luciano not guilty of murder. After all, they had already lost one of the cold-case trials to an acquittal. But Luciano, the reputed head of Aurora's Latin Kings, was found guilty Thursday by a jury.

What made this case different from the prosecution of George Torres?

BY MIKE CETERA

One day after announcing a new system to alert residents to crime, the Aurora Police Department on Wednesday sent out its first bulletin.

The alert, announcing the murder of a 23-year-old Aurora man, was sent via the Web-based Citizen Observer network.

BY MIKE CETERA

UPDATE BELOW: March 26

Ahem. Well then.

We're not going to link to it from here -- this is supposed to be a family-friendly blog, after all -- but local police agencies looking to show how serious they are about cracking down on prostitution need look no further than Craigslist, an online personals site, where a variety of "services" are seemingly available to anyone with an e-mail account or a phone.

No wonder Aurora police have made three arrests in recent months for prostitution. It's really not that difficult to find people on the Internet willing to get paid for sex. The most recent arrest came this week when Jason A. Pauls, 34, was charged with prostitution.