Tag Archives: Peoria Police

Blogosphere, Peoria Police

There’s a reason you have to have press credentials to see the police blotter

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I read Billy’s recent “free” post about how he was denied access to police reports. His post calls into question the police department’s restriction of this information to only those with press credentials.

I wanted to find out what the police department’s policy actually was, so I e-mailed Chief Settingsgaard. It turns out that, rather than an attempt to keep information away from people, it’s actually an attempt to make information available more quickly. The police reports include private personal information such as social security numbers and home phone numbers that can be (and should be) redacted. But rather than hold up those reports until they can be redacted, the police department makes them available immediately to the press, trusting that they will be responsible and “[maintain] appropriate discretion.”

In order to restrict this information to the media, one has to ask, “who are ‘the media’?” Traditionally, that moniker has belonged to the mainstream media, but these days there are a lot more freelance reporters. With news organizations downsizing, and the ease of starting new niche-print or online publication, there are a lot of journalists out there who don’t have traditional “press credentials.” Settingsgaard realizes this as well.

“Obviously the industry is changing and not all reporters are members of the mainstream media any longer so clearly we need to adapt so that persons like yourself and Bill Dennis are not excluded. In the short term I will ensure that access is opened immediately to Mr. Dennis and others like him whom we are familiar with. Long term I will be taking a close look at how to make the system better and either configure the reports so that anyone can view them or modernize our ‘press’ qualification.”

My thanks to Chief Settingsgaard for his quick response to and resolution of the matter.

And as for Billy: That will be $30, please.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

On second thought, maybe we do have too many police officers

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It wasn’t that long ago that the police were needing lots of overtime and help from the state police to handle violent hot spots in the City. But now it looks like they’ve got nothing better to do than conduct sting operations on people smoking in bars.

The Journal Star article says that “smoking violations [are] administrative in nature and not criminal,” and are adjudicated through “a complicated, quasi-judicial administrative system set up through the Illinois Department of Public Health.” So my question is, why are the police involved in the process at all? Why isn’t the health department sending inspectors into these bars like they do for restaurant inspections?

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Police

City getting grant for police officers

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From this week’s Issues Update:

Senator Dick Durbin’s Office contacted the Peoria Police Department on Thursday, September 30, 2010, to inform them that the City of Peoria had been chosen to be one of the cities awarded funds under the 2010 COPS Hiring grant. Peoria was awarded funding for the entire request of 10 sworn officer positions, at a total cash value of $2,721,400. This grant will fund the salary and benefits of 10 officers for a period of three years, with the City being responsible for funding a fourth year. The application was for the hiring of 10 new positions, however, once the City has received and signed off on the formal documents, we will have the opportunity to request a modification to the grant wherein it will fund 10 current positions, thereby preventing layoffs. [emphasis added] It is worthy to note that Peoria received the largest allotment of all Illinois cities with the next highest being Waukegan at $2.2 million. It is also interesting to note that all applications from across the country were scored and Peoria finished with a score of 94.49 (out of a possible 100) placing Peoria at the 99.86 percentile. A meeting will be scheduled next week with Chief Settingsgaard and his staff to sort out the details.

So the City is going to take this grant and try to use it to pay for current officers instead of using it to add officers. And we may still have a net loss of three officers, according to Word on the Web’s coverage of last night’s City Council meeting:

Mayor Jim Ardis talked about the city’s operations budget. The 5 percent budget reductions would mean 13 fewer police officers, 15 fewer firefighters and two fewer employees in public works. The impact of fewer police officers, presumably, would be lessened by a federal grant.

Can we afford to keep cutting police officers?

City of Peoria, Crime, Peoria Police

Task force sees early success

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Click above for larger image (PDF)

Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard recently updated City officials on the results of his efforts to quell gun violence. So far, it’s going well:

[P]lease see attached hot spot maps relative to our current task force initiative. We are 14 days into the task force so I conducted an analysis comparing the 14 days prior to launching the task force versus 14 days afterward. City wide we had a 25% reduction in people being hit by gunfire and a 25% reduction in confirmed gun discharges.

The attached maps demonstrate the before and after picture for the combination of murders and gun discharge incidents. The red hot spot areas are gone which is very good news. I would temper the good news however by stating that 14 days is a very small sample size and we need to keep up our efforts.

I also would note that the hot spot maps include all instances where someone was killed, someone was shot, or simply where we had a confirmed gun discharged. This does not include reports of shots being heard with no witness and no physical evidence. We must have had someone who was willing to stat they saw it happen, or we found shell casings, or someone or something was hit, etc. The criteria is identical for both “before” and “after” to ensure apples to apples comparison.

City of Peoria, Crime, Peoria Police

Another murder, but immediate arrests

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The Peoria Police Department issued the following press release last night:

RELEASED BY: Lieutenant Vincent C. Wieland – Criminal Investigations Division 673-4521
DATE: July 17, 2010
SUBJECT: Homicide & Arrests –– 10-17329

At 0958 hours, on Sunday July 18, 2010, the Peoria Police Department responded to 1215 N. Frink on a reported shooting. Upon arrival officers found three gunshot victims (43 YO male, 28 YO male, and a 40 YO female). All three were immediately transported to OSF Medical Center.

As officers responded, witnesses described to dispatch the suspect vehicle and its direction of travel. This information was broadcasted to responding officers and officers observed the vehicle travelling down Main St. hill at a high rate of speed. A vehicle pursuit ensued and the suspect vehicle then turned from Main St onto Perry and continued on Perry until the driver lost control and crashed at Lincoln Middle School. At that time two suspects bailed from the car and were shortly thereafter apprehended. A handgun was recovered.

Both suspects, Skyler Jordan (24 YOA) and Taurean C Gregory (24 YOA) were brought to the Peoria Police Department where they were interviewed by detectives. Jordan was arrested for First Degree Murder, 2 counts Attempted Murder, Unlawful Use of Weapons, Aggravated Discharge of a Firearm, and Criminal Defacement of a Firearm. Gregory was arrested for First Degree Murder and two counts of Attempted Murder.

The 43 YO shooting victim died in surgery and the other two shooting victims sustained non-life threatening injuries. A crime scene was located in the 1200 Blk. N Frink and police are continuing to attempt to locate witnesses.

This case remains under investigation and the Peoria Police Department urges anyone possessing any knowledge of this incident to contact the Peoria Police Department at 673-4521 or Crime Stoppers at 673-9000.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Despite promised enforcement, jaywalking tickets tossed

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Students were ticketed for walking in the middle of the street near Manual High School again. And once again, Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard is tossing out the tickets. But I was intrigued by this statement at the end of the article in the Journal Star:

Settingsgaard said he is looking for better long-term solutions than issuing tickets. He has asked City Manager Scott Moore to investigate possibilities, particularly along Wiswall, that would provide a safe place for students to walk.

“One possibility might be to create a pedestrian/bicycle lane on one side of the street. This could potentially alleviate the problem without the tremendous expense or installing sidewalks/curbs/gutters.”

Some thoughts:

  • How many sidewalks/curbs/gutters could we install for $39.3 million — the amount the council is desperately trying to put in Gary Matthews’ pocket? I guess a skywalk between the Pere and the Civic Center is more important than the safety of our city’s children. We keep spending money hand over fist to lure the ever-elusive tourist while our basic services disintegrate. You’d think the big push for the census would remind City Hall that residents are important, at least in terms it can understand — money. The more population we have actually living in Peoria, the more revenue we get from property taxes and federal/state appropriations. But if we keep treating our residents as second-class citizens and catering to the Almighty Tourist, it should come as no shock that people will choose to live in surrounding communities where they are more valued.
  • While the city has a responsibility to provide for the safety of children, these students nevertheless also must bear some personal responsibility. In the absence of sidewalks, they should be walking next to the shoulder, not walking down the middle of the road obstructing traffic. The last time students were ticketed, they got their tickets thrown out only if they attended mandatory school assemblies where police officers and school officials tried to give students a “better understanding of the rules.” Furthermore, Settingsgaard said at the time — and this is a quote from the 2007 press conference announcing the jaywalking tickets would be expunged — “there will be enforcement in the future.” Now we learn there will be no enforcement, no assemblies — no accountability or consequences of any kind. What message does that send?
  • I wonder how the police officers feel who gave out the citations. Having their Chief throw nearly all the citations out after he had said there would be enforcement in the future certainly sends a mixed message at best. It also might make me wonder what other laws the Chief would like not to see enforced, and for which people.
Crime, Peoria Police

Torched house was Drug Nuisance Property

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The Journal Star reports that 1533 W. Butler St. was set ablaze around 1:20 p.m. by an arsonist who poured gasoline on both floors. Here’s what the paper doesn’t say: this is a known Drug Nuisance Property according to the Peoria Police Department. The website explains that “[n]uisance letters are sent to landlords, tenants and/or homeowners where illegal drug activity has occurred.”

When a landlord or homeowner receives a nuisance letter they are required to abate the nuisance up to and including eviction. By using this website, you will be able to view public records of individuals related to the nuisance letter who were arrested for narcotics possession or other offenses during search warrants or other illegal activity.
For those who are struggling with drug addiction and do not know how to recover from this illness at this page you will find online treatment and professional doctors that will be able to assist you.
The following individuals were arrested for various offenses at the listed addresses.

The listing for August shows:

Butler (1533 W.)     Beasley Jr., Charles W.
Brittine, Dexter
Burse, Ricky R.
Fitzpatrick, Allen S.
Yarbrough, Aerial D.

I’d say that’s a good start to a suspect list.

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Police, Television

Kudos to Journal Star on some great reporting

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A couple pieces worth reading, if you haven’t already:

  • Investigative Report on Overtime: With the city facing a budget deficit of $10-12 million, everything is under scrutiny, and that certainly includes the city’s largest expense: salaries. So kudos to the Journal Star — and specifically John Sharp — for the in-depth analysis of overtime expenses in the police and fire departments. All angles of the story were covered between the main article and numerous sidebars.

    I thought it was interesting that the police union would rather see property taxes raised than take a pay freeze, considering almost half the force lives outside of Peoria and would be unaffected by a tax hike. It was also interesting to read that Mayor Ardis is threatening the police department with layoffs if they don’t voluntarily freeze their wages.

  • Local Media Beat: Steve Tarter’s weekly column keeps us up to date on what’s happening in local TV and radio. His article this Sunday included some great news: Fort Wayne weatherman Jason Meyers is going away.

    A grievance filed by Channel 25 employees over displacement of station personnel by using the aforementioned Fort Wayne weatherman for weekend weather on the station’s local-news show was upheld by an arbitrator last week.

    The news is the last bastion for local programming on commercial television, and here’s WEEK outsourcing the weatherman — roughly one third of the local newscast — after they already obliterated WHOI’s independent news team. It’s sad that local content has sunk to such a low.

Peoria Police

Pictures of drug arrestees on the web

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As promised, the Peoria Police Department has a new section on its website called the Drug Nuisance Property section. If you click on the months in the left-column menu, you can see mug shots of those “individuals [who] were arrested for various offenses at the listed addresses.” The police go on to say, “It is hoped that the photos of the arrested individuals will serve as a deterrent to others.”

In addition, the Journal Star reports:

Ten properties also are listed on the Web site, marked as “sightings” of the department’s Armadillo nuisance vehicle. The vehicle, an old Brinks truck outfitted with a bulletproof exterior and armed with surveillance equipment, was created to annoy residents disturbing the peace of their neighbors.