Beat 2523 CAPS Meeting This Evening (9-22-10)

Good evening, everyone. The meeting this month had, I hate to say, pretty poor attendance. I was excepting more people. So, moving on to the old issues from August:

Old problems:
* Ken-Well Park - There has been gang loitering and drug dealing in the park. CAPS Sergeant Tim Weiglein says that the District Park car, Beat 2505 on the radios, has been paying special attention to the park.

Before I move on to the new problems, I'd like to let you all know that search warrants were done in the 4100 block of W Barry and the 3100 block of N Monticello, according to Sgt. Weiglein. At these search warrants, large amount of drugs were found. Also, I received word that there was an attack on the 2900 block of N Kostner last night around 9:45pm. A teenage boy was on his way home from night school, when a male came out of nowhere and "savagely" attacked this boy. I heard that the boy was injuried in the attack. No word on his condition.

And now to the new problems:

New problems:
* Barry/Harding/Springfield - There is a problem with parking in this general area. There is also gang loitering in the area, particulary by the ASPIRA school on Barry.
* On Belmont, there is shady activity going on. This shady activity includes gang members loitering, and them asking kids who go to a nearby school if they want drugs.
* Your's truly brought up a concern a reader shared with me regarding 2933 N. Avers, with trespassers. I also brought up a building that is a problem on the corner of George and Ridgeway.

Other observations:
> This was one of the greatest meetings I've ever been to. I was given a "Community Service Award" (see picture). It was presented to me by Sgt. Weiglein. The whole room clapped and I thought I heard a cheer or two. It felt great to get an award, especially what I do to try to keep all of you safe in the community. This work I do isn't for me to get praise and glory for myself. It's for all of you, to make sure every single person has a safe community that we can be proud of.
> The most incidents took place in the 2900 block of N Lawndale. The most crimes were criminal damage (18 reported incidents), theft (15 reported incidents) and motor vehicle theft (14 reported incidents). The most incidents took place on Saturdays and Thursdays. Most incidents took place on the street (32 reported incidents) and in apartments (20 reported incidents). The most incidents took place in the 1pm, 8pm and 10pm hours.

As I do in every Beat meeting post, I extend my thanks to all for being involved in this meeting. We are making progress for sure, I think, but work still needs to be done. Further more, I am very thankful to be welcomed at the meetings by everyone. Once again, I ask for those residents who read the blog but don't come to the meetings (because they don't want to), please, come! It only takes ONE hour of your time, and we need all of the help we can get.

Thank you,
Timmy