Police: March 2008 Archives

BY MIKE CETERA

When I try to picture a hate crime, I think of pitch forks, burning crosses and racially-motivated beatings. I don't conjure up a domestic dispute between two kids who used to date.

But a 14-year-old high school student in St. Charles is facing a hate crime charge -- a felony -- for writing "disparaging comments" on his ex-girlfriend's locker, among other things.

If both of these teens were the same race, this fallout from the breakup would have been unremarkable. Kids are immature. Nasty comments happen. But he is white and she is black.

From the story:

According to the state's attorney's office, the boy also drew a stick figure of a person in a noose on his computer. At some point the girl saw it and became alarmed -- leading to the hate crime charge, the state's attorney's office said.

BY MIKE CETERA

The city of Aurora trumpeted it's latest crime statistics last week, something unusual for a town that has in the past taken a PR beating in this regard.

And while the overall decrease is a positive, the last line in Staff Writer Matt Hanley's story caught my eye: "Last year's reduction in major crimes mirrors a national drop in crime rates."

Really? Crime is dropping everywhere? Why is this?

BY MIKE CETERA

With so many communities -- including Aurora -- approving use of cameras to catch people running red lights, I found a new study out of Florida particularly interesting.

The Florida Public Health Review concludes that "crash, injury and mortality risks do not change immediately, if at all" with the introduction of red-light cameras.

Further, the study notes that red-light running fatalities -- at least in Florida -- are not on the rise. So why the need for cameras?

Because the rigorous and robust studies conclude that cameras are associated with increased crashes and costs, any economic analysis of cameras should include these newly generated costs to the public. Indirect costs to the public are usually not considered in the calculation of total revenues and profits generated from red light cameras.... Also, public policy should avoid conflicts of interest that enhance revenues for government and private interests at the risk of public safety (emphasis added).