BEAT 1431 CAPS
Meeting Minutes
December 7, 2006

The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 4th at 7:00 pm at Nazareth Church, 2500 N. Talman.

Officers Present: SGT Giambrone (3pm - 11pm), PO Strazzante (3rd Watch 3pm - 11pm), PO Ortiz, PO Crawford (Midnights), PO Augustyn 14th District CAPS office.

Number of Beat 1431 residents present: 10

General Announcements
SGT Giambrone was pleased to announce five arrests in connection with robberies in our Beat over the last month. Overall in Beat 1431, there were 35 arrests, up from 22 the month before. SGT Giambrone attributes the arrest successes to increased police effort and proactivity.
As mentioned last month, robberies continue to increase throughout our 14th district during this holiday season. SGT Giambrone reported that the "public violence hour" for burglaries is between 10 - 11am during the week. In other words, this hour of the day statistically has the highest number of reported burglaries than any other time of day. Another high crime hour of the day is the early morning hours around 2am when bars are closing. Criminals have been focusing on bars at closing time mugging intoxicated men and women.

While shopping during this holiday season, remember to keep gifts and belongings out of site when parking your car in public places. Also, women walking with purses should consider placing them inside jackets. Police discourage carrying purses around the neck which could lead to serious injury if a purse snatcher forcefully attempts to steal the bag. Mobile phones should also be carried and kept separate from purses providing an opportunity to call for help (911) in case the purse is stolen. Finally, walking with headphones is not a safe practice as they impair your ability to sense a potential criminal approaching from behind.

Citizen ICAM
From November 1st through November 30th, according to the Citizen ICAM, Beat 1431 suffered 87 crimes, an increase of 23 from last month (64):
- 14 Person
- 58 Property
- 2 Society (Narcotics)
- 7 Domestic (assault and battery)
- 6 undetermined

Court Advocacy
There are a handful of Court Advocacy cases scheduled during the last week of December for crimes committed within Section 1. These court cases were selected based upon their importance to the Beat 1431 community and participating Court Advocates. The Court Advocate program organizes volunteers to attend court. If there is intimidation from the defendant, other Beats either within the district or from another district are asked to attend the court proceedings and support the victim. There is no obligation beyond 1 court appearance as a Court Advocate. The Court Advocate program meets the first Tuesday of every month at the 14th District Police Station at 6pm. For further information, please contact Deb Augustyn at the CAPS Office 312-744-8290.

SAM (Sale of Alcohol to Minors)
The SAM prevention program was in our Beat the past month and targeted El Cid and Royce 21 Club at 2103 N. California. Neither business sold alcohol to the minors used in the SAM test.

Beat 1431 Section Reports
SECTION 1 (Borders: California, Milwaukee, Armitage)
1) A resident was assaulted on Saturday evening, December 2nd by two black males at 9pm near the alley on the corner of California and Armitage. Police response was very quick but the criminals are still at large.
2) The property owner of 2019 Bingham - who last month reported the assault of one of her female tenants - had one of her car windows broken out as an act of retaliation and intimidation. The vandals were not caught.
3) On November 10th, police acting on a search warrant for 2061 Bingham arrested Jose Alvarez with possession of Cocaine and several police scanners (police scanners are used by these criminals to intercept some police communication indicating their current orders).
4) Police on foot patrol on Bingham visited 2026 Bingham which had an outstanding warrant. The resident at this property was arrested for drug related charges.
5) There was an arrest made for a domestic violence incident in this section.
6) Five graffiti vandals were arrested at Bingham and Milwaukee.
7) There was also an arrest made for a juvenile delinquent near Chase School vandalizing a property with graffiti during the Noon hour.
8) An arrest was made of a juvenile firing an air pistol on Stave.
action: Residents are strongly urged to voice complaints of problem property 2113 Bingham by calling Problem Building Area 5 Deputy Chiefs Office. The two officers to reach are Dave Lewis and Sean Newton at 312-746-5737. Also, residents are strongly urged to call 911 when they see the drug activity behind Marianos providing very detailed descriptions of the offenders.

SECTION 2 (Borders: Rockwell, Lyndale, Western, Milwaukee)
1) Alderman Flores had a meeting with Principal Gonzalez from Chase Elementary School to address the unacceptable Congress event parking practices within the school's parking lot/playground. The contract between Congress and Chase is apparently up at the end of this year and a community meeting is expected to discuss the contract in the future with both the Alderman and Principal Gonzalez.
Two weeks ago, there was another incident where a neighborhood couple walking their dog had to avoid a parking valet while he was driving a car on the sidewalk to get to the Chase lot.
2) A senior citizen was struck by a .38 pistol at the Western Tap at 2044 N. Western during a robbery. The criminals, Ivan Negrone and another known neighborhood Latin Lover gang member living in Section 1, were arrested at Campbell and Rockwell.
3) The 14th District has a CTA program where police officers volunteer to ride the CTA trains and buses on their time off. During a recent patrol on the CTA, officers arrested two criminals in a car at Lyndale and Western in possession of a large amount of money, a Glock 29 pistol and Cocaine.
4) PO Strazzante with the aid of PO Retamozzo and PO Macniff responded to a robbery at Western and Armitage and arrested the 3 criminals who were attempting to flee on a CTA bus. PO Strazzante was awarded a citation from SGT Giambrone for these arrests.
action: Residents and business owners should be aware of the increase in robberies to storefronts on Western. Call 911.

SECTION 3 (Borders: Rockwell, Fullerton, Western, Lyndale)
1) Police are targeting this area for robberies for the second month.
2) Officers arrested 2 individuals for aggravated robbery at The Sunny Tap on the 2400 block of N. Western, November 26th.
action: Residents and business owners should be aware of the increase in robberies to storefronts on Western. Call 911.

SECTION 4 (Borders: California, Fullerton, Rockwell, Milwaukee)
1) A Latin Lover juvenile was caught and convicted with gun possession at the Goethe school parking lot. While he was out on probation, he was arrested again on a neighboring beat with possession of a large amount of Cocaine (he was frequently seen loitering on the 2600 block of Altgeld).
2) A resident reported that a sign at a recent Congress Theater event was directing further parking at Goethe Elementary School. It was not known at this meeting whether there is any event parking contract between the Congress and Goethe Elementary School. So there are now community concerns as to whether more parking problems will be occurring at Goethe School.
3) On November 27th, at 2345 N. California a juvenile was arrested for shooting a gun.
4) Friday, November 24th two black hooded Hispanic males, believed to be MLD gang members, were seen loitering in the diagonal parking behind Goethe Elementary School at Lyndale and Talman.
5) Residents reported a pattern of loud, disrespectful behavior from individuals going to their cars and loitering (shouting and playing very loud music) on the 2100+ block of Talman from Milwaukee and Talman up to the diagonal parking at Goethe Elementary school of Medill and Talman between 2am - 2:30am. These individuals are believed to be coming from the Tini Martini lounge at Milwaukee and Talman. Police reported that this business has had problems with patrons getting into fights as well as illegal parking practices.
action: Residents are encouraged to contact Alderman Flores' office to verify whether the Congress is using Goethe Elementary School as overflow parking for events. Gangs continue their presence at Goethe Elementary School. Residents are urged to call 911 when witnessing any gang activity.

SECTION 5 (Borders: California, Logan Boulevard, Rockwell, Fullerton)
1) graffiti continues to be a problem behind the Midas business at Fullerton and Washtenaw. This property tends to consistently get tagged with gang graffiti.
2) The MLD gang member reported back in June of this year who accidentally shot himself in the leg on the 2400 block of Fairfeild, was arrested on 1411's Beat after crashing into 2 cars in a stolen vehicle. The accident occurred when the MLD was waiting at a stop light in the stolen car and hesitated after the light changed. An unmarked police car (unaware of the MLD in the hot car in front of them) was behind the MLD at the light and hit the horn to alert him to move forward. The police horn surprised the MLD making him think he was being pulled over, causing him to accelerate out of control and into an oncoming SUV. The MLD was arrested and should not show up in our Beat for a long time.
3) During the evening of December 6th, gang members from the Altgeld Washtenaw MLD gang were caught tagging over rival graffiti at Altgeld and California.

SECTION 6 (Borders: Rockwell, Logan Boulevard, Western, Fullerton)
1) November 6th at around 11:30pm fireworks and smoke bombs were being fired in the alley behind Artesian.
2) During the weekend of Thanksgiving, MLD graffiti vandalized the West side of the building on 2541 Campbell. The 311 report reference number is 06-02260935. Deb Augustyn from CAPS will call Streets and Sanitation to help expedite the removal of this graffiti.
3) Huckleberries bar on Fullerton has had it's liquor license revoked. This bar has had a colored past of drug and gun offenses as well as being a neighborhood gang hangout.
action: Residents should continue to call 911 to report gang activity and 311 for graffiti.


Recurring Problem Areas for BEAT 1431
1) Property at 2113 Bingham
2) Gang graffiti
3) Gang loitering and recruiting
4) Gang drug trafficking
5) Gang violence

DISCLAIMER
Beat 1431 CAPS volunteers prepared these meeting minutes to the best of their ability.