Category Archives: Peoria Police

City of Peoria, Crime, Peoria Police

Police are 2 for 2 in 2007 for finding homicide suspects

6 Comments

If you’re looking for a silver lining to the dark cloud of two homicides within two weeks in Peoria, it can be found in the fact that police have a suspect in custody for each case. There are still 11 homicides from 2006 that remain unsolved with nary a suspect.

Within a week after this year’s first homicide, police arrested Bryce K. Lowder of 1017 W. Wilcox Ave. “on a charge of murder in connection with the slaying of 18-year-old DeAndre T. Allen,” according to the 1/7/07 Journal Star. Today the paper reports that “Shane L. Heuck, 1711 N. Douglas St., was booked on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Virginia K. Mallow.”

Let’s just hope now that the state’s attorney will do a good job prosecuting them and get a couple of convictions.

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Reader poll: What is adequate police protection?

7 Comments

In my last reader poll, I asked the question, “What are essential services?” and the answers were terrific — very enlightening. Certainly there was a lot more disagreement than I thought there would be, but there was one thing, and one thing only, on which everyone agreed: police protection is an essential service.

But how do we assess whether this essential service is adequately provided by the City? What would the City have to do for us each to say, “yes, they’ve adequately provided for police protection in Peoria”?

Is it as simple as staffing x-number of cops on the beat? Is it solely punitive, or is there a prevention or early-intervention component to having adequate police protection (e.g., could some funding for education be considered an investment in crime prevention, and in that sense be considered part of providing adequate police protection)? Is it a funding issue — having enough money for all the communications and other equipment needed?

I think a distinction needs to be made here for the purposes of this question not becoming too large. I’m talking about what the City Council can do to adequately provide police protection. I’m not looking for a critique of the police department’s or the state’s attorney’s effectiveness or what they can do better at this point. Just from a Council perspective, at what point are you/we satisfied that they (the Council) are doing enough, and any problems or shortcomings are someone else’s fault other than the Council’s?

City of Peoria, Crime, Peoria Police

First day of the new year yields first murder

This isn’t a good omen. DeAndre Allen of Peoria was shot to death at 9:10 p.m. on New Year’s Day at 3229 N. Gale Ave. And Peoria’s homicide rate continues unabated.

But Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard is looking on the bright side. Noting that another person standing near Allen was also grazed by a bullet, the Journal Star quotes the Chief as saying:

“It’s very difficult,” Settingsgaard said of the new year’s first homicide. “We’re lucky we don’t have two people dead.”

With every dark cloud, there’s a silver lining, eh? It’s good to be positive, but something has to be done to curb the homicide rate in this city before we get a reputation like Gary, Indiana.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Wanted: Fine, upstanding witnesses to murder

4 Comments

There’s an article in today’s paper about Police Chief Settingsgaard’s press conference yesterday regarding unsolved murders. I’d like to comment on two pieces of info that seem a bit contradictory to me (emphases mine):

Despite new technologies that help collect evidence, officers still often rely more on witnesses to solve cases. Settingsgaard said fear and apathy may be to blame for the lack of information coming from the public….

And while police have made arrests in some cases, those people are not always prosecuted by the State’s Attorney’s Office. “Their burden of proof goes beyond what we need to make an arrest,” Settingsgaard said. Those that do come forward as witnesses, “their character may make them unbelievable (in court),” he said.

So, if I read this right, the police need witnesses, and in several cases the police have witnesses, but the states attorney says the character of the witnesses “make them unbelievable” in court, so they don’t prosecute. And then everyone’s surprised by the apathy of other potential witnesses.

Evidently the states attorney is looking for fine, upstanding citizens — maybe a banker or a Cat exec, you know, someone with a lot of integrity — who just happens to have been on the south side in the middle of a drug deal and has witnessed a murder.

Call me cynical, but I don’t foresee any big breakthroughs on the unsolved murders.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Peoria police response to exposé unacceptable

11 Comments

I’m with Scott Janz on this one. The WHOI (channel 19) news team recently did an exposé on child sex offenders who were living within 500 feet of Peoria area schools.

In Illinois, it’s illegal for child sex offenders to live within 500 feet of schools. The only exception is if the offender owned the home before the summer of 2000.

WHOI checked public records of sex offenders’ addresses in Peoria, East Peoria, Washington, and even Bloomington to see if they were complying with the law. They didn’t find any violators in Washington. The violations they found in East Peoria and Bloomington were dealt with quickly:

Two hours afters after [East Peoria Police Chief Ed] Papis learned of our findings, he sent out two officers. A man found to be living about 450 feet from an elementary school was put on notice. He now has a month to move.

Bloomington police have given a child sex offender there fourteen days.

Yet, WHOI found seven sex offenders living within 500 feet of District 150 schools. The response they got from the Peoria Police Department? Ho-hum:

“Originally it is the offenders responsibility to find some place to live that is within the legal boundaries, so they have to take some responsibility themselves,” said [Peoria Police Department spokesperson] Ann Ruggles. […]

When asked if the spokeswoman thought the department did enough, she responded: “Yeah, I do. With the personnel that we have at this point, but I don’t know what else basically we could do. I’m sure you’ve told me and I’m sure there are people out there who are in violation.” […]

“We will check those out, but the person, the convicted person should take responsibility, too. If we go out and they are found to be not compliant, then they will have to suffer the consequences,” said Ruggles.

I think we’re all aware that it is each person’s individual responsibility to obey the law, but thanks for reminding us, Ms. Ruggles. As far as your department doing enough “with the personnel that [you] have at this point,” I beg to differ. You have seven sex offenders living within 500 feet of District 150 schools. I submit to you that that fact proves your department is clearly not doing enough.

Martha Hammer is reported as being “the woman over Peoria’s sex offender registration.” So, they’re already telling you their address — how much extra time would it take to type that into the computer and see how close it is to a school? How about taking a couple officers off the seat-belt violation beat and having them work on keeping sex offenders away from children?

It is outrageous for the Peoria Police spokeswoman to shrug her shoulders and say the department is doing all it can. In a city with eight unsolved murders yet this year, this latest scandal further deteriorates our lack of confidence in the Police to enforce public safety. Take a cue from East Peoria and send officers out to address this immediately if you haven’t done so already, and then tell people what action you’ve taken.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Inside the mind of a Peoria thief

8 Comments

One of my neighbors’ home was burglarized last weekend. The perpetrator(s) took lots of electronic stuff (two laptops, stereo equipment, iPod, speakers, etc.). But the most bizarre thing happened after that.

Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry’s car was stolen, and he called his car phone and the guy who stole his car answered? Well, truth is stranger than fiction. I just got an e-mail from my neighbor where he related this exchange:

And another interesting note, one of them used my wife’s computer today to get on the internet (her Windows Messenger icon came online). I had a chat with him and he actually responded. He actually told me he was using the internet in a public place—then later told me it was at a McDonalds. He told me that I could buy the laptop back off of him for $500. I agreed. He then backed off because he was scared I would call the cops. He then told me that I have too much confidence in our police and that they won’t do anything. He said that he could do the same thing again and still won’t be caught.

I suppose all criminals are cocky like that, believing they’ll never get caught. Still, according to witnesses, this crime was committed in the middle of the day, in broad daylight. And the shameless perp has no fear of having a conversation with the person from whom he stole. And, this particular perp’s confidence is not in his personal craftiness, but in his perception that the police department “won’t do anything.”

What could be giving Peoria thieves that impression? I’m afraid I don’t have any answers.

City of Peoria, Peoria Fire Department, Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Police

Journal Star: Better to burn to death than be murdered

5 Comments

Does that headline sound silly to you? Me too. But the Journal Star’s editorial Tuesday argues just that. Instead of fully staffing Fire Station 11, we should spend that money on police protection, they said. “Firefighting and other emergency response are important, but every penny spent on reopening Fire Station 11 is one that won’t go to added police protection.”

Fire and police protection are both among the most essential, basic services a city can provide, and their funding comes pretty much exclusively from the city. So police and fire protection should not be pitted against each other for funding. Something is wrong in a city that can’t fully staff their fire stations and provide adequate police protection at the same time.

There must be other places where the city could cut truly unnecessary spending. (Fire protection is not what I would call “unnecessary.”)

This may sound like sour grapes, but the more I think about it, the more I question the money the city spends on District 150. Think about it. The school district is its own taxing body, and the city has gained nothing by trying to cooperate with the school board, so why are we sending them over a million dollars a year in operating, capital, and debt service support? The fire and police departments can’t tax the public directly for their needs, so it would seem to me that the city’s money would be better spent on fire and police instead of the school board.

If we have to start picking and choosing, I don’t know how the city could responsibly cut fire protection while still spending money on a school district that is essentially double-dipping our tax dollars.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Shooting too close to home

2 Comments

A man was shot in the Rolling Acres subdivision on Wednesday, the Journal Star reported.  WEEK’s website reports that the man has died.

I attended Rolling Acres school for Kindergarten through seventh grade (it was a K-8 school back then), and I had many friends who lived throughout the Rolling Acres, Sherwood Forest, and Joanne Manor neighborhoods.  Hearing about a shooting should be shocking to us no matter where it happens, but I’ll be honest, it’s more shocking to me hearing that it happened in the neighborhood where I grew up.  I guess it just hits a little too close to home.

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Police, Peoria Public Schools

City pushes school district to build on current site

10 Comments

Several City of Peoria department heads — including the police chief — met with District 150 representatives to strongly request Glen Oak School stay put, according to today’s Journal Star. Whether they refurbish or rebuild, the school should be in the center of the neighborhood, not on the fringe. The two biggest concerns with the Glen Oak Park location the school district is considering are (1) traffic on Prospect — every walking student would have to cross this busy street and dangerous intersection, and (2) crime at this corner — the convenience store at Prospect and Abingdon/Frye is a hotbed of crime, according to Peoria Police.

I wonder if the school board is getting the message…. The residents, parents, police, Heart of Peoria Commission, etc., all want to see Glen Oak School stay at its current site. It looks like the only ones who want to see it move are the school board members.

One concern I have from the article, though was this:

[Third District Councilman Bob] Manning said officials told Hinton the city is willing to close off streets around Glen Oak Primary School if a new school goes there [corner of Frye and Wisconsin].

Does he mean permanently or just during school hours, like they do near Kellar Primary? Either way, there is no justification for closing streets at that site. At Kellar, they have a split campus and children are crossing the street all day (or so they tell me), but Glen Oak is a unified campus and children only cross the streets when they come to school in the morning and when they leave for the day — and I’m pretty sure they already block off Frye during those times. The speed limit is only 30 mph — 20 when children are present. The school sits at a 4-way stop, and there are crossing guards when children are arriving and leaving. It appears the traffic situation is in control at that site without taking any further action.

Manning also offered to implement a façade improvement plan for the businesses along Wisconsin. That’s a great idea. So far, the current façade improvement plans have been well-received — there are two requests for grants on the council’s agenda tonight.