Hello BBC neighbors,
This month's CAPs meeting was a full house with almost all seats taken in the Truman College classroom it was hosted in.
I scanned in the documents that were available to us at the meeting:
Page 1 is the agenda including arrests stats since the last CAPS meeting in our beat.
Page 2 & 3 are a new method the CPD are using to fight drug trafficking via a dedicated phone number and info sheet that can be submitted anonymously.
Page 4 is a graphical representation of the top 10 crimes in beat 2311 and their counts.
Pages 5 - 10 are pictures of, "Newsworthy Crime Offenders" for Area 3. Note: Area 3 covers a larger area than our beat.
The individuals listed have been arrested, formally charged and are awaiting trial as of last night's CAPs meeting.
One of the officers pointed out the that the man on the first set of pictures in the lower right corner, Markus Moore, is a leading member of the Black P Stones. He was arrested for alcohol consumption and is awaiting trial.
There was a representative from State Rep District 13 Greg Harris' office present. The police informed us some of the progress in arrests are credited with the help provided by Greg.
The drug sales along Wilson were brought up. The CPD said the drug sales along Wilson are an ongoing investigation and that although they are actively working on it, Uptown will not see any immediate changes.
With that comment, the CPD noted they have targeted multiple crime spots in our beat. All of which will take time to complete.
In regards to gang loitering, the city has redone ordinances allowing them to replace existing practices. The new practice focuses on High Gang Conflict areas. These areas are identified by crunching data entered into the CPD crime database via arrests and investigations. The areas are updated on a weekly basis instead of the previous quarterly frequency. So as gang activity moves from one block to another, so do the CPD. We can help this process by calling 911 when see crimes.
The CPD re-iterated that it is time to call 911 when a police officers presence can make a difference at the time of the call. Among the obvious, this also includes aggressive panhandling.
The CPD stated that 1/3 of the panhandler arrests in Chicago are in Uptown.
The June 24th Black Escalade incident on Malden was brought up. Police have no leads. They have located the vehicle but the owner is not cooperating.
Richard, from the Court Advocay group spoke about his organization (see the first CAPS meeting minutes for more info).
A citizen identified herself as the owner of the Godfather's Pizza and mentioned she has young men coming into her establishment that she feels are gang members and just there to get off the street to avoid being seen by the police. Not all will make purchases and she does ask them to leave. The CPD stated as an owner of the business she has a right to tell any patron to not come back. If they do she can contact the police to fill out a formal complaint and they will investigate. The CPD also stated the building Godfather's inhabits is under an ongoing investigation.
A citizen mentioned the alley between Malden and Magnolia at about 4425 (?) that young men/kids hang out in. They turn over dumpsters on either end of the alley so cars don't drive down it.
There was also mention of a car that drives a loop around that block (20 times a day?) that citizens feels is gang/drug related.
Police re-iterated to call 911 if we feel the police can make a difference in these situations.
The next CAPS meeting is August 10 at 7p.
That's all for this time.
Michael Villafana, BBC CAPS Liaison
