24th District Police Launch "Howard Street Initiative"
Dear Neighbor,
Our new 24th District Police Commander, David Sobczyk, has hit the ground running with a new initiative to take the bite out of crime in the Howard Street area.
Beginning Sunday, February 1st, 24th District beat officers and Chicago Police Department tactical team officers will engage in a concerted and coordinated effort to strictly enforce all violations of state law and city and Park District ordinances. In addition, a "zero tolerance" policy will be adopted for all truants and curfew violators.
Recognizing that most crime and disorder activity takes place during the afternoon and early evening, enforcement efforts will be concentrated especially between noon and midnight, with a highly visible police presence during the evening rush hour.
The boundaries of the target area are Jonquil Terrace on the north, Rogers Avenue on the south, Clark Street on the west and Greenview Avenue on the east. The area, which includes the Howard Street el station and the Willye White (formerly Gale) Park, is one of the more challenging in the ward. In the last half of 2008, the area accounted for over 1,100 calls for service, 156 arrests, and over 700 contact cards. Contact cards are brief reports completed by police officers during traffic stops and investigative stops based on a suspicion of criminal activity.
Despite the arrests and contact card activity, crime and disorder continues to affect the area. Commander Sobczyk launched this initiative now to establish control over the area before the warm weather returns in the spring. The Commander tells me a disproportionate number of contacts and arrests are made of people who live outside the neighborhood. He hopes this new initiative will discourage those troublemakers from returning to the area.
The overall goal of the plan is to reduce the number of calls for service in the target area by reducing the incidents of crime and disorder. The Commander will continually monitor the area for changes in criminal behavior and adapt their enforcement efforts to those changes.
Commander Sobczyk assures me that this new initiative will not result in any reduction of police forces or efforts in other areas of our neighborhood.
I will work closely with Commander Sobczyk to monitor the progress of the new initiative and report to you the results.
Sincerely,
Joe Moore
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sobczyk to Take Bite Out of Crime
Email poof from Joe Moore this morning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
27 comments:
Hopefully this will be a sustained, ongoing, long term and consistent effort, not simply a 'short term' show of force, as we've seen so often in the past. One question: Why doesn't the boundary of the targeted area extend North to Juneway Terrace? It certainly should.
We wish the Commander and the 24th District officers great success with this new initiative.
Thank you,
M. Luckenbach
North Howard Neighbors Association
I am cautiously optimistic. This area has been trouble for 25 years. Good luck to the officers.
We need these email blasts to come directly from the commander. Otherwise, Joe is always taking credit for things he is not doing.
Sounds good on paper. Can't wait to see it in action.
I'd like to see it extend from Rogers to Juneway, Clark St to the Lake. The "parties" that get moved out of Gale Park on Howard often move east to the Lake. Also, they could probably benefit by making the ending time 2:00 am.
I'm glad the police are paying close attention to our area. It can only help.
To be clear; Joe Moore had absolutely NOTHING to do with this initiative. This is strictly a result of the new Commander analyzing the 'data' and determining that crime and disorder in the area was in need of serious attention. Joe has never acknowledged our problems NoH.
So how come when there's a press release that needs issuing, Joe Moore is the man, but when someone bleeds out on the sidewalk minus their watch & wallet Moore's apologists are all like, the alderman is not responsible for crime, you can't blame the alderman for everything, ratta ratta?
I for one APPLAUD this initiative. I do wish it extened West to Ridge though. The current boundries just miss two large Parks, Touhy and Pottawattomie. If nothing else, these parks should be on the radar for the special enforcement duty as the parks are natural gathering spots for those that have been displaced.
I hope this initiative lasts through the begining of Spring/Summer as well.
But, this is a GREAT first step!
Thank you Commander!!!
Joe Moore said... > "I will work closely with Commander Sobczyk...."
The last time Joe Moore said something like this, Commander Caluris left the district days later.
Joe Moore said....> "Despite the arrests and contact card activity, crime and disorder continues to affect the area...."
Hey, Joe, I thought "crime was down?"
===troublemakers===
Don't you mean gang-bangers?
Joe Moore blew so much smoke up our asses in this email blast, the 50th ward called the fire department.
Thank you to the Commander and 24th District officers. This is certainly welcome news.
I hope the Commander can convince the management of the Northpoint Properties and their so called security staff to work with him to help clean up this area.
I'm sure the Commander will quickly learn as soon as they clear Howard Street, the Triangle Park area and the 7700 blocks of Paulina, Marshfield and Ashland will become trouble spots.
He has his work cut out for him.
===Commander Sobczyk assures me that this new initiative will not result in any reduction of police forces or efforts in other areas of our neighborhood.===
We're already short 1000's of officers in the Chicago Police Department. How can this known liar promise such a thing?
Thank you Commander Sobczyk for vision, leadership, progress, hope and change.
Thank you Alderman More for....um........ummm...email.
Craig, it's exactly that type of attitude that keeps keeps good Police Officers from asking to go to 024. Why deal with people with that kind of mindset when they can go somewhere else and feel appreciated? Or at least be given the respect that everybody deserves. But not here, not in Rogers Park. The man comes here and tries to make your area a little bit better and what does he get? He's called a liar.I know the Commander. He is not a liar. Your disrespect is unwarranted and way out of line.
I've had the 24th district police write contact cards on me, even thou they knew who I was.
I've had the 24th district police try to intimidate me at CAPS meetings for telling them crime happens.
I've had the 24th district police sergeant give me a unwarranted ticket for riding my bike.
I've had police try to arrest me for covering a police shooting.
I've had police threaten to arrest me for taking photographs.
I've had the 24th district police write my parking tickets on my vehicle for no reason other than I took a photo of a police officer sleeping in his car.
I've had the 24th district police try to arrest me for doing a job the city should've done weeks before.
I've had the police shine their spotlight in my bedroom window, in some sort of intimidation tactic.
I've had a commander lie about a story that I never printed.
The list could go on and on.
When the police show some respect to me, I'll return the favor.
I've been threaten with arrest for trying to break up a 4 on 1 gang fight.
And Dave Sobczyk played WHAT role in any of that? Assuming that all those things are true, he played WHAT part in any of it to earn being called a liar? Call me crazy, maybe it's just me, but if I was really concerned about crime conditions and the quality of life where I live and the new District Commander told me he was going to initiate reforms to reduce crime and improve the quality of life in my neighborhood, the last thing I would do would be to call him a liar. But maybe the key phrase is "really concerned".
Commander Boggs came aboard and told us the same thing. He was going to clean-up Howard Street.
Commander Rottner came aboard and told us the same thing. He was going to clean-up Howard Street.
Commander Caluris came aboard and told us the same thing. He was going to clean-up Howard Street.
If these three professional Commanders of the Chicago Police Department couldn't clean up Howard Street -- what makes Commander Sobczyk think he can?
This email blast is nothing more than smoke being blown up the citizens asses to make some soft-on-crime politician look like he cares.... when he really doesn't.
Big Daddy, Really, sorry to be so cynical. But I've been given the run-around for far too long. My trust in the system isn't there any more. The corruption top-to-bottom has worn thin on me. I'm over-taxed and under-served.
I listen on the scanner as your fellow officers on the street mention about being undermanned and under equipped. A radio is broke here. The car is broke there. The PDT doesn't work. Riding around "99". Then we read about the non-stop officer who abuse their power in the main-stream news. Officers under investigation for pay-offs. Officers being arrested for beating the defenseless. Officers letting a 14 year old drive a police car and go on dispatched calls. WTF?
Nothing has changed from the days in the 70's when the Chicago Police would regularly harass, illegally search and even in two cases beat the living shit my dad for just being in a gay bar on Wells Street.
Should I trust the police? After all this, would you?
Yes you should and yes I do. Remember, those incidents account for what percentage of the entire Police Department? We have 13,500 (allegedly) and if you comine, the Abbates, the Cozzis, the O'Callaghans, the Burges, the SOS scandal, the Jefferson Tap incident and tack on another 200 just for the sake of arguement, you come up with a number that represents WHAT percentage of the Police Department? The VAST majority of these guys WANT to do a good job, ARE honorable and DO have your interests at heart. I will agree that they are hampered by lack of good equipment, a thinning Police Department, a political system that could care less about you or them, a command staff that appears to be dazed and confused and yes, a SMALL minority of Officers who are either corrupt, indifferent or overzealous. But none of that earned Dave Sobczyk the title of liar. If he does not do what he says he will, then fine, call him a liar. I'll be on your side. But give him a chance.
I agree, BD. As one who has known and, as a community activists, worked with every 24th District Commander since the late '70's, I say let's give Sobczyk a chance. However, as Craig rightly points out, we have heard this 'crack down' business many times in the past without any lasting or meaningful results. Naturally, this has created a certain level of skepticism and doubt amoung many. At this time, let's all move forward together with the common goal of improving life for all in our neighborhood. As the old saying goes: "The proof will be in the pudding."
Big Daddy,
Many us are skeptical of the "system'. Some of this is warranted, some not so much.
So Craig here has some "issues" with the police. The counter point to Craig is that it seems to me that the comments on this subject are in favor of, and thankful to our new Commander's focus on Howard Street.
Many of us will look at the past, the promised focus on this trouble spot, the failed initiatives, and look at this most recent announcement with a raised eyebrow. Hoping for the best, somewhat expecting more of the same.
But, if the Commanders focus, and the officers working the duty do indeed have a long term "positive" impact, I think you will see joy in the streets, and much (most of it un-voiced) thanks to the police.
Just be prepared for more complaints than thanks. People complain 10-1 compared to thanks. The people that will be disrupted will not be thankful, and as you know, the press THEY get is vocal and strident.
The people that may be thankful will for the most part be silent. There will be a few of us that express our thanks, but most people will not be vocal about it as they live in a world where they simply expect safe, non-violent, non-threatening streets to live on.
OK, so maybe we all wish that, but we are talking the NOH area of the 49th Ward in Chicago. A dumping ground for decades with an over concentration of far, far left loonies and other "helpful" agency's and groups. Many of these folks completely distrust the police, and will NOT be thankful.
But the silent majority will, whether they know it or not, be pleased with the results. So, please, give us some RESULTS!!!
Perhaps the crack downs don't last because the justice/rehabiltation system is already stretched and can't handle the influx of offenders that zero tolerance would produce.
The police may have little choice but be babysitters.
They could shoot on sight.
SOS.
That would free up space at Cook county and clear the courts.
Cuts way down on repeat offenders.
Does that make me a liberal?
Yes we can.
I hope the new Commander really means it and can make changes. I don't pay any attention to a Moore email - he just sends them out to make himself feel important and pretend he's actually doing something. Funny how the Alderman's emails never address the problems in the neighborhoods - they just continue to tell us all that crime is down!
Post a Comment