Beat 2523 meeting on Wednesday

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to tell you all, and because I've had popular demand :), about 2523's Beat meeting that took place on Wednesday (9-23-09).

When I walked in with my mom, it was just us. We were early. So we just sat in the lobby of the Copercius (not sure how's it spelled) Center, 3160 North Milwaukee. About 10 minutes later, a couple of more residents arrived. Then the Beat officers walked in with the Beat facilatior (I'm sure some of you may know who she is, if you live on Beat 2523). Then followed in was Sergeant Weigelin, one of my favorites from 25. Officer Flores came in with him. She's my favorite police officer out of 25. She's kind and she really seems to enjoy her job.

Anyway, the Beat meeting started. We all introduced ourselves. Then here was when it got interesting.

The first talked about issue from last month was from 2911 North Springfield, where apparently there were gangbangers hanging out at night, making noise and causing a disturbance. Sergeant Weigelin told us the officers looked into it, and shut it down.

Then discussed was the issue of people feeding the homeless and drunks along Milwaukee Avenue, particulary at Davlin Court. The Medical Center at that corner was especially doing it. Also along Milwaukee were the lovelys throwing trash around. This really bothered a couple of residents.

Third on the agenda was the liquoir stores on Milwaukee. Apparently, they were violating their lisences or something by just handing out bottles of liquior on the street. I'm not too sure. It was something like that. There were also a couple of other issues along Milwaukee. To combat all of this, the police did a mission along Milwaukee about two or three weeks ago (I remember hearing this over the scanner). They went into zero tolerance mode. 16 arrests were made from the mission. The intoxicated people were taken to those garden places on Madison.

The last issue regarding crime were prostitutes up and down Pulaski, looking for customers. They even came up to one of our residents who attended the Beat meeting.

The non-crime issue we had was the Beat meeting location being moved. Officers want to move it to St. Joesph's Village Of Chicago, 4021 West Belmont. Residents complained of parking issues there. So did one officer. They also talked about changing the Beat meeting time for it to start a little earlier (at 6 or 6:30). They think more people will show up if they do that.

Now, moving on to the new problems:

• 3733 West George - There are all sorts of craziness happening at this location. Mostly males, allegedy Hispanic, one who appears to be a gang member, are going by 3 window of the ground floor. There are also women involved. They were seen putting their hands through the windows then getting in cars. They drive towards Hamlin on George usually. This occurrs between 12-3pm.
• There has been reports of a car hitting other cars throughout the Beat, that also appears to be getting into them and stealing things.
• 4000 block of West George - Illegal parking on the south side of the street. There are 3 feet from the curb. The resident reporting this has called once, but he got a bad response from the officer assigned on second watch and from OEMC (911 center).
• 3084 North Davlin Court - People, particulary males, have been sitting in cars for long periods of time, drinking. They double park all over the block. The resident complaining reported that a male in a red car was dragging a female and beating on her on the 23rd. Before he could get a plate or anything, the car took off. The resident noticed this when he heard the female screaming outside.
• 3100 block of North Monticello - There has been some guys doing something in the west alley. They have appeared to be doing exchanges, possibly involving narcotics.
• 2856 North Hamlin - There were people urinating, but within 3 days before the Beat meeting, the back garage where this was occurring was boarded up.
• Belmont and Milwaukee - All the Shell gas station, resident after resident reported a regular group in upwards of 30 to 40 people gathering there, sometimes blocking the pumps. One resident says one bum bumped his car, which scared the daylights out of his daughters, who are small children. A bum also tried to rob the resident. He was quoted/unquoted as saying "hey, give me all your money," repeatedly.

So, yes, I attended my Beat. It was good and interesting. So interesting that I'm going back in October. I really enjoyed this meeting.

Other observations:
On this Beat, there were 329 calls for service. We've had 116 reported crimes with 61 arrests. Most of the crime seems to be on the 3900 block of West Diversey. Most of the crime appears to take place on Sundays. The highest reported crime was Theft. Most crimes were reported in the 8pm, 11am and 10pm hours.