Last weekend, Northwest Team officers got slammed with a series of investigations that emanated from a large drinking party in a big new duplex on N. 21st Street near the northern edge of the city. Six assaults and one robbery occurred after a group of uninvited attendees showed up and were not exactly friendly, a trend of late. Fortunately, the robbery was cleared quickly when Sgt. Bill Kuhlman stopped a vehicle leaving the area and found the rather distinctively-described suspect. (Note: not a good idea to commit robbery when you are 6'7" tall. )
When the dust cleared, the Northwest Team had a mound of reports to complete, follow-up to conduct, evidence to tag, and statements to transcribe. It's not the first time, as this same location has been the site of 19 police incidents this year, including a total of 9 violent crimes: rape, robbery and assault. I think it will get dramatically quieter in the next several months, because Capt. Genelle Moore had a frank conversation today with the registered agent of the corporation that owns the duplex--a nice little factoid made readily available 24/7 courtesy of the Lancaster County Assessor and the Nebraska Secretary of State. Our registered agent is a well-known developer of many-bedroomed-vinyl-sided-huge-garage-in-front duplexes.
Our experience with such places has been that when we bring some pressure to bear on a landlord, manager, or property owner, the situation normally improves quite quickly. Take away the anonymity, and suddenly it's not just the police who are trying to solve the problems. We have occasionally used Lincoln's ordinance Maintaining a Disorderly House to cite landlords or property owners, but usually the mere implication that we might do so spurs the owner to get a move on it.
The Northwest Team has another great example of the phenomenon. It's another one of those big duplexes dropped into a formerly quiet little area of single-family homes. In 2005, we responded to the duplex on 34 incidents. In 2006 it was 48. I was working on New Year's Day this year, and noticed the trend. I sent a facetious email to the captain who commands the area, wondering if we should just assign an officer to park in front of the duplex as a fuel saving measure, since we were there ten times in December of 2006 anyway.
That ramped up the heat on the landlord with a citation for Maintaining a Disorderly House (we had warned him several times previously). His initial response was to complain to a City Council member. I had to explain all the details in order to assure her that we weren't picking on the landlord, rather, he was failing to take the necessary steps to deal with these problem residents (among those cited there--five times--was this guy). After he was cited, the landlord promised to do better, and the City prosecutor dismissed the charge. Within a matter of weeks, he sold the property. He just wasn't equipped to deal with tenants who were not cooperative.
Apparently the new owner is. Our last police dispatch to the duplex was case number A6-139400, a wild party disturbance on December 29, 2006. If we make it through today, that's a full year with zero police calls, arrests, citations, and complaints.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Big blue elf
I've had some pretty neat experiences working second shift on Christmas over the years, but yesterday was the best ever. Here's what happened.
My wife and her coworkers at Chico's decided to forego their usual Christmas gift exchange at work, and to pool the money they would have spent on little gifts for one another. They asked me if I could help find a family who could use an unexpected gift. I've helped line such things up for other groups before, so of course I was happy to do so. I usually get a tip from the police department's Victim Witness Unit, but this time I had someone in mind already.
In the meantime, Capt. Dave Beggs received a call last week from a citizen with a similar request. Dave had me call him back, and it turned out to be a guy I know, Jim Otto. He and some friends were doing the same thing Tonja and her coworkers were doing. After their Christmas Eve get together, they dropped off an envelope to Assistant Chief Jim Peschong, who was working the evening shift. Jim sent me an email, and locked it up in my office.
All in all, I had $600 in Target and WalMart gift cards and postal money orders to deliver on behalf of these donors. I knew exactly who I wanted to help. It was a young family I had met along with Officer Cass Briggs, as I worked Veteran's Day on the Street. They are living in some of the poorest housing in town, but obviously were trying to make a good life. Someone had stolen their bicycle, and as I took the report, I reflected on the challenges they face. They were the ideal choice, I thought, to receive this random act of kindness.
I checked by their apartment a few times after the 2:30 p.m. briefing for second shift, but I couldn't find them at home. I was getting a little worried when I found the lights burning just after 8:00 p.m.. I suspect they were a little surprised to find the police chief at the door, but I was warmly greeted, and explained my purpose. When I told them how much money I had for them, I think they were momentarily dumbfounded. I soon found myself being hugged by the entire family. For Jaime, Ana, and the children, this would be a major event. It would be the equivalent of somebody knocking on my door and handing me around three grand. Cass Briggs said it well: "That will make a huge difference for that family."
My work done, I sprang to my Tahoe and beat feet. But I had to explain, ere I drove out of sight, that I was just the heavily-armed and highly-paid delivery man.
Wow, did I have a great Christmas!
My wife and her coworkers at Chico's decided to forego their usual Christmas gift exchange at work, and to pool the money they would have spent on little gifts for one another. They asked me if I could help find a family who could use an unexpected gift. I've helped line such things up for other groups before, so of course I was happy to do so. I usually get a tip from the police department's Victim Witness Unit, but this time I had someone in mind already.
In the meantime, Capt. Dave Beggs received a call last week from a citizen with a similar request. Dave had me call him back, and it turned out to be a guy I know, Jim Otto. He and some friends were doing the same thing Tonja and her coworkers were doing. After their Christmas Eve get together, they dropped off an envelope to Assistant Chief Jim Peschong, who was working the evening shift. Jim sent me an email, and locked it up in my office.
All in all, I had $600 in Target and WalMart gift cards and postal money orders to deliver on behalf of these donors. I knew exactly who I wanted to help. It was a young family I had met along with Officer Cass Briggs, as I worked Veteran's Day on the Street. They are living in some of the poorest housing in town, but obviously were trying to make a good life. Someone had stolen their bicycle, and as I took the report, I reflected on the challenges they face. They were the ideal choice, I thought, to receive this random act of kindness.
I checked by their apartment a few times after the 2:30 p.m. briefing for second shift, but I couldn't find them at home. I was getting a little worried when I found the lights burning just after 8:00 p.m.. I suspect they were a little surprised to find the police chief at the door, but I was warmly greeted, and explained my purpose. When I told them how much money I had for them, I think they were momentarily dumbfounded. I soon found myself being hugged by the entire family. For Jaime, Ana, and the children, this would be a major event. It would be the equivalent of somebody knocking on my door and handing me around three grand. Cass Briggs said it well: "That will make a huge difference for that family."
My work done, I sprang to my Tahoe and beat feet. But I had to explain, ere I drove out of sight, that I was just the heavily-armed and highly-paid delivery man.
Wow, did I have a great Christmas!
Jinxed
Earlier this month, I blogged about the common misconception that suicides are more common around the winter holidays. The data showed this is not the case at all. So what happens? No sooner do I post the article, and we have more suicides. December, with six so far, now is the highest month of 2007.
Monday morning, I blogged about the success of a project to reduce residential burglaries through sliding glass doors at apartment buildings. I noted that only three of these had occurred during December. So what happens? Four more, of course.
Reporter Nancy Hicks called me on Christmas Eve, and jokingly asked me if I'd have any news for her on Christmas. Like me, she works on Christmas, and she's always the one calling me that night trying to find something for the December 26th news. I told her she could always do the standard story about the stupid ways people end up in jail on Christmas. I told her that Christmas is usually quite slow, but that the events that occur just seem to stand out in contrast to the joy that should be prevailing. I spent a good deal of the morning putting some data together for her to debunk the myth that there are more domestic assaults on Christmas, in order to illustrate the point.
Micah Mertes ended up doing the story on this, which ran in this morning's Lincoln Journal Star, and included the data I worked up on the 24th (click to enlarge):
So what happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year? You guessed it. The 23 assaults topped the average of 21.8 on every other Monday and Tuesday of 2007, and the 15 of those that were domestic assaults blew the average of 9.8 out of the water.
I'm beginning to wonder if this blog is the Lincoln police equivalent of the Sports Illustrated Cover Curse.
Monday morning, I blogged about the success of a project to reduce residential burglaries through sliding glass doors at apartment buildings. I noted that only three of these had occurred during December. So what happens? Four more, of course.
Reporter Nancy Hicks called me on Christmas Eve, and jokingly asked me if I'd have any news for her on Christmas. Like me, she works on Christmas, and she's always the one calling me that night trying to find something for the December 26th news. I told her she could always do the standard story about the stupid ways people end up in jail on Christmas. I told her that Christmas is usually quite slow, but that the events that occur just seem to stand out in contrast to the joy that should be prevailing. I spent a good deal of the morning putting some data together for her to debunk the myth that there are more domestic assaults on Christmas, in order to illustrate the point.
Micah Mertes ended up doing the story on this, which ran in this morning's Lincoln Journal Star, and included the data I worked up on the 24th (click to enlarge):
So what happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year? You guessed it. The 23 assaults topped the average of 21.8 on every other Monday and Tuesday of 2007, and the 15 of those that were domestic assaults blew the average of 9.8 out of the water.I'm beginning to wonder if this blog is the Lincoln police equivalent of the Sports Illustrated Cover Curse.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Proactive policing
Last Thursday, Capt. Kim Koluch, who commands our Southeast Team, handed me a Lincoln Police Department Problem-Oriented Policing Project Summary. I was on my way out the door at the time, to a speaking engagement at the Lincoln Chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals.
The POP Project Summary gave me a great example to demonstrate how we use information and analysis to inform good police work. At our November 21st ACUDAT meeting, we had discussed a rash of burglaries occurring at apartment complexes, with entry through sliding glass doors. In many of these, the simple expedient of a broomstick in the track would have prevented the burglary. Capt. Koluch's team was already on top of this trend before the meeting, and three of her officers had initiated a POP Project two days earlier. It had just concluded when Capt. Koluch handed me the summary.
In the parking lot of the restaurant where the AITP meeting was being held, I cracked open my laptop, and used CrimeView to make a year-to-date map of these offenses, and a bar chart by month. For once in my life, I was actually five minutes early, and a good current example is always so much nicer than a PowerPoint.
Here was the strategy employed by officers Spencer Behrens, Matt Tangen, and Joe Yindrick: They contacted managers at 22 large apartment complexes, to make sure they were aware of the pattern. They handed out over 100 informational fliers for posting at entryways and communal mailboxes. Some complexes publish tenant newsletters, and included this information in the next issue. The information provided included the advice of a bar in the door track--something several complexes make available for their residents. The Southeast Team also beefed up patrol time in these complexes, as workload allowed. Finally, we got this information out to the news media, and several stories highlighting prevention resulted.
The results are impressive. In the six weeks prior to the project, 24 of these burglaries occurred. In the six weeks after, there were 8. On Matt, Spencer, and Joe's beat, where they did the door-to-door work, these burglaries fell from 9 to 2. Whereas there were 16 sliding glass doors citywide in October, and 20 in November, as of today there have been only three in December.
Dr. Susan Welch, who taught my research methods class, would point out the problems with the methodology of this simple pre-post test. First, the n is quite small, making statistical significance hopelessly elusive. Second, the effect of history compromises the internal validity of this quasi-experiment. I'm a huge believer in basing strategies on sound scientific evidence, but in the real world you must sometimes act on incomplete information and imperfect knowledge.
The POP Project Summary gave me a great example to demonstrate how we use information and analysis to inform good police work. At our November 21st ACUDAT meeting, we had discussed a rash of burglaries occurring at apartment complexes, with entry through sliding glass doors. In many of these, the simple expedient of a broomstick in the track would have prevented the burglary. Capt. Koluch's team was already on top of this trend before the meeting, and three of her officers had initiated a POP Project two days earlier. It had just concluded when Capt. Koluch handed me the summary.
In the parking lot of the restaurant where the AITP meeting was being held, I cracked open my laptop, and used CrimeView to make a year-to-date map of these offenses, and a bar chart by month. For once in my life, I was actually five minutes early, and a good current example is always so much nicer than a PowerPoint.
Here was the strategy employed by officers Spencer Behrens, Matt Tangen, and Joe Yindrick: They contacted managers at 22 large apartment complexes, to make sure they were aware of the pattern. They handed out over 100 informational fliers for posting at entryways and communal mailboxes. Some complexes publish tenant newsletters, and included this information in the next issue. The information provided included the advice of a bar in the door track--something several complexes make available for their residents. The Southeast Team also beefed up patrol time in these complexes, as workload allowed. Finally, we got this information out to the news media, and several stories highlighting prevention resulted.
The results are impressive. In the six weeks prior to the project, 24 of these burglaries occurred. In the six weeks after, there were 8. On Matt, Spencer, and Joe's beat, where they did the door-to-door work, these burglaries fell from 9 to 2. Whereas there were 16 sliding glass doors citywide in October, and 20 in November, as of today there have been only three in December.
Dr. Susan Welch, who taught my research methods class, would point out the problems with the methodology of this simple pre-post test. First, the n is quite small, making statistical significance hopelessly elusive. Second, the effect of history compromises the internal validity of this quasi-experiment. I'm a huge believer in basing strategies on sound scientific evidence, but in the real world you must sometimes act on incomplete information and imperfect knowledge.
"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."-Samuel Johnson
Friday, December 21, 2007
'Tis the season
The police department receives lots of nice Christmas cards. This one caught my eye because it was addressed to me personally (with the usual misspelling), and carried the words "Inmate Mail" stamped in red on the lower left corner of the envelope. The front of the card has a silver foil ornament embossed on a red background.
The inside inscription starts with "'Tis the Season to be Merry, you red-neck mother." The quality of the prose goes downhill rapidly after that, but he managed to fill both sides with invective.
This lovely card comes from a man the Lincoln Police Department has arrested or cited 70 times, booked into jail on 16 occasions, and who's done three prison terms in our fair State. He is now in custody for murder, and has filed his third small-claims court lawsuit of the year against yours truly. What I particularly enjoyed, though, was on the back of the card--it's a Hallmark.
He cared enough to send the very best!
The inside inscription starts with "'Tis the Season to be Merry, you red-neck mother." The quality of the prose goes downhill rapidly after that, but he managed to fill both sides with invective.
This lovely card comes from a man the Lincoln Police Department has arrested or cited 70 times, booked into jail on 16 occasions, and who's done three prison terms in our fair State. He is now in custody for murder, and has filed his third small-claims court lawsuit of the year against yours truly. What I particularly enjoyed, though, was on the back of the card--it's a Hallmark.
He cared enough to send the very best!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Not the worst
A long time ago, in a blog post far away, I was planning on following-up by tackling the issue of Lincoln having the worst driver's in the United States. Finally, I have been spurred to action by a clever article by Micah Mertes in the Lincoln Journal Star this week, and the dozens of reader comments that amused me so much.
This is, by the way, a recycling article that will appear from time to time in a column or letter to the editor. I am constantly amazed at the way Lincoln residents who immigrated from far-flung communities wistfully recall the bucolic traffic in places like Los Angeles or Atlanta, where the driver's are skilled, the traffic engineering is sophisticated, the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
I think it's a psychological thing: the idiots around you right now are clearly incompetent compared to the brilliant formula one driver's you used to commute with in San Jose.
Here's some evidence that, despite our collective belief to the contrary, Lincoln driver's probably aren't the worst. First, LSU studied alcohol-related fatalities in the largest 107 cities in the United States over a multi-year period. Lincoln was dead last. Next, CMAC Insurance commissioned a nationwide driver's test, with a scientific sampling method, and a sample size of over 5,000 drivers. Nebraska finished 7th. Finally, Allstate Insurance publishes it's annual "Best Driver's" report of collision rates in the largest 200 cities in the United States. Lincoln ranks 22nd, ahead of virtually all those places where the driver's are allegedly better, with a likelihood of collision 12% below the national average.
And for all those comments about the lack of traffic enforcement in Lincoln (despite the personal experiences of tens of thousands of motorists who received official or warning tickets from Lincoln police officers last year) I offer this: scroll down on this page to compare the number of traffic stops made by our little force of 317 sworn officers with the 787 officers at our big brother down the road.
This is, by the way, a recycling article that will appear from time to time in a column or letter to the editor. I am constantly amazed at the way Lincoln residents who immigrated from far-flung communities wistfully recall the bucolic traffic in places like Los Angeles or Atlanta, where the driver's are skilled, the traffic engineering is sophisticated, the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
I think it's a psychological thing: the idiots around you right now are clearly incompetent compared to the brilliant formula one driver's you used to commute with in San Jose.
Here's some evidence that, despite our collective belief to the contrary, Lincoln driver's probably aren't the worst. First, LSU studied alcohol-related fatalities in the largest 107 cities in the United States over a multi-year period. Lincoln was dead last. Next, CMAC Insurance commissioned a nationwide driver's test, with a scientific sampling method, and a sample size of over 5,000 drivers. Nebraska finished 7th. Finally, Allstate Insurance publishes it's annual "Best Driver's" report of collision rates in the largest 200 cities in the United States. Lincoln ranks 22nd, ahead of virtually all those places where the driver's are allegedly better, with a likelihood of collision 12% below the national average.
And for all those comments about the lack of traffic enforcement in Lincoln (despite the personal experiences of tens of thousands of motorists who received official or warning tickets from Lincoln police officers last year) I offer this: scroll down on this page to compare the number of traffic stops made by our little force of 317 sworn officers with the 787 officers at our big brother down the road.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Tagger nabbed
Yesterday morning, Alyssa posted a comment on my blog post from last Friday, Drugs, alcohol, and gangs. She asked which gang was responsible for the "D3M" graffiti in downtown Lincoln. I replied to her with, "Stand by for breaking news on the tagger using the signature D3M."
Here's the breaking news. A 22 year old Lincoln man was arrested early yesterday afternoon in connection with several graffiti vandalism cases in which the moniker "D3M" was applied with a marker. The most recent cases occurred on the night of December 15, at two downtown locations and at several other spots on State property (these were handled by the State Patrol), including the Governor's Mansion.
Snow helped, as the suspect, riding a bike, was tracked by the Capital security force, contacted and identified. There was not enough evidence to detain him at the time, but further investigation by our officers from the Center Police Team resulted in probable cause. Officers Bob Smith, Justin Darling, and others did a nice job with the follow-up work to make this case.
The "D3M" signature (some think it looks like "P3M") has appeared on many past occasions. Overnight on July 28, for example, over a dozen tags were reported. The tag has also appeared frequently on University of Nebraska property (investigated by the University Police). We will continue follow-up investigation to determine if this same suspect is responsible for these other cases. The recovery in his residence of two trophy news articles from the January 13, 2006 Daily Nebraskan and the July 29, 2007 Lincoln Journal Star would tend to indicate that he has been busy. We took quite a beating from one of the property owners and some of the reader comments in that July 29 article.
It's not this guy's first time. Back in October of 2001, we arrested him for trespassing after finding him inside a construction site in south Lincoln. At the scene of his arrest, we recovered a discarded marker. Earlier in 2001, on May 12, we arrested him in connection with a dozen graffiti vandalism cases downtown. He was using a different signature at that time. All of these 2001 cases were transferred to juvenile court, and our suspect received probation.
We arrest 'em, folks, but we don't decide the sentence.
Here's the breaking news. A 22 year old Lincoln man was arrested early yesterday afternoon in connection with several graffiti vandalism cases in which the moniker "D3M" was applied with a marker. The most recent cases occurred on the night of December 15, at two downtown locations and at several other spots on State property (these were handled by the State Patrol), including the Governor's Mansion.
Snow helped, as the suspect, riding a bike, was tracked by the Capital security force, contacted and identified. There was not enough evidence to detain him at the time, but further investigation by our officers from the Center Police Team resulted in probable cause. Officers Bob Smith, Justin Darling, and others did a nice job with the follow-up work to make this case.
The "D3M" signature (some think it looks like "P3M") has appeared on many past occasions. Overnight on July 28, for example, over a dozen tags were reported. The tag has also appeared frequently on University of Nebraska property (investigated by the University Police). We will continue follow-up investigation to determine if this same suspect is responsible for these other cases. The recovery in his residence of two trophy news articles from the January 13, 2006 Daily Nebraskan and the July 29, 2007 Lincoln Journal Star would tend to indicate that he has been busy. We took quite a beating from one of the property owners and some of the reader comments in that July 29 article.
It's not this guy's first time. Back in October of 2001, we arrested him for trespassing after finding him inside a construction site in south Lincoln. At the scene of his arrest, we recovered a discarded marker. Earlier in 2001, on May 12, we arrested him in connection with a dozen graffiti vandalism cases downtown. He was using a different signature at that time. All of these 2001 cases were transferred to juvenile court, and our suspect received probation.
We arrest 'em, folks, but we don't decide the sentence.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Weather and crime
I was on the phone Friday with our new fire chief, Niles Ford. Chief Ford is most recently from Georgia and prior to that Alabama. I asked him how he was adapting to Nebraska's late fall (yes, that's right; winter has yet to begin). He said there have been some challenges. I told him not to worry, this would be all over by June.
It's been a more typical Nebraska December this year. In the first 15 days of the month, we have had snow on 9--including three snows significant enough to require some work with the shovel--or scoop--depending on your preference. That's a far cry from December, 2006 when there was no snowfall at all until a trace blew around on the 22nd. Moreover, the average temperature in the first 15 days of the month last year was 7 degrees warmer than this month's average. Last December, the high temperature in the first 15 days of December included 8 days when it was 50 degrees or better.
The snow and cold may be a bit daunting for Chief Ford, but for Chief Casady, it has a decidedly bright side. Few things slow crime like a good old Nebraska snowstorm, and the three weekend hits this month have been accompanied by 171 fewer Part 1 Crimes--the offenses tracked by the FBI for all the annual statistics. That's a 30% decrease.
Criminals generally don't want too hard or be very uncomfortable. When you look at the "outdoor offenses"--things that require a little walking about in the cold, like auto theft, burglary, and larceny from auto--it's easy to see that the thieves hunker down in the Nebraska winter--er, fall.
It's been a more typical Nebraska December this year. In the first 15 days of the month, we have had snow on 9--including three snows significant enough to require some work with the shovel--or scoop--depending on your preference. That's a far cry from December, 2006 when there was no snowfall at all until a trace blew around on the 22nd. Moreover, the average temperature in the first 15 days of the month last year was 7 degrees warmer than this month's average. Last December, the high temperature in the first 15 days of December included 8 days when it was 50 degrees or better.
The snow and cold may be a bit daunting for Chief Ford, but for Chief Casady, it has a decidedly bright side. Few things slow crime like a good old Nebraska snowstorm, and the three weekend hits this month have been accompanied by 171 fewer Part 1 Crimes--the offenses tracked by the FBI for all the annual statistics. That's a 30% decrease.
Criminals generally don't want too hard or be very uncomfortable. When you look at the "outdoor offenses"--things that require a little walking about in the cold, like auto theft, burglary, and larceny from auto--it's easy to see that the thieves hunker down in the Nebraska winter--er, fall.
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