By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
It was a warm sunny evening on Tuesday, June 7, when Elmhurst police officers held their second Neighborhood Roll Call at Third and Ridgeland, encouraging neighbors to come out and say hello.
An initiative of Police Chief Michael Ruth, roll calls in the local neighborhoods began last year.
“It allows us to get to know the people, but also for them to know us,” Ruth told the Independent in a exclusive interview. “It’s good for people to know who is patrolling their neighborhood, if they ever need some kind of help, at least people know who to talk to.”
The roll call initiative is one of the elements of the new patrol strategy at the Elmhurst Police Department.
“Our new commitment is to more visibility,” Ruth said. “In the neighborhoods and on the streets around Elmhurst. We want people to know us and feel comfortable with us.”
He encouraged people to feel free to call the police department with any concerns in and around their neighborhood.
“You are not bothering us,” Ruth assured. “We welcome questions and will gladly keep a lookout for anyone or anything you might be worried about.”
Current trends in crime
When asked about current crime trends, Ruth said there was much more identity theft and fraud going on, especially with credit cards.
The Independent asked about the rise in the number of cases of fraud in filing tax returns.
“It’s definitely on the rise in an attempt to defraud the federal government,” Ruth said. “The FBI has been actively working on it.”
As far as the IRS is concerned, Ruth offered this reminder:
“The IRS will only contact you by mail, by regular U.S. Mail,” he said. “They do not call, they do not threaten, there are no ‘pay us now or go to jail’ messages. If you receive a message like that, call the police and do not reply in any way to the call. Above all, don’t send money or private information to anyone unless you know exactly who they are and what they want it for.”
He added not to be taken in by emotion.
“Sometimes a kid might call Grandma because he’s in jail and needs bail or something,” he said. “They might even say, ‘be cool, don’t tell mom.’ Well, Grandma wants to help and wants to be cool, so she sends the money to an unfamiliar location, only to find out later, perhaps that wasn’t her grandson at all.”
RFID wallets – do they help?
The Independent asked Ruth about the ads on television about RFID readers, that someone can supposedly wave a device near your wallet and read all your personal information including credit card numbers. Are they real? Could that actually happen? And will those special wallets that supposedly block the devices really help?
Ruth noted that many credit cards now come with a computer chip in them and those could possibly be read by a device.
“But it would have to be very, very close to that chip,” he said. “You’d have to hold the two closer together, less than half an inch apart, and hold it for about 2 seconds to possibly read it. Reading through a wallet is very unlikely, and for that reason, any ‘special’ wallet designed to block out reading devices is probably a waste of money.”
The summer months are upon us…
Now that summer is here, Ruth said the police department is rolling out its new Summer Mobile Patrol Program. The program is designed to engage the community with visible and interactive police patrols in our residential neighborhoods, local parks, the train station, and provide a greater visible presence on the Prairie Path and the Salt Creek Greenway Trail. The funding of the additional police officers for the program is provided by the Equitable Sharing Program. The unit consists of police officers riding bicycles and driving an electric side-by-side ATV to provide a more visible and engaging community presence.
The ATV was made possible by a grant issued by Union Pacific Railroad. To make sure that this ATV lasts for a long time, proper maintenance must be administered by changing the atv tires, as well as checking the mechanics at regular periods.
The latest annual report…
As in past years, Ruth went over the annual report with the Independent, showing trends and numbers from 2015.
Some highlights include:
The investigations division was assigned 264 cases in 2015, most of the theft, burglary, and burglary to motor vehicle incidents. There were 114 thefts, 29 burglaries, 25 “financial” crimes, among others.
The Mission Team is a group of three officers and a Sergeant who work in plain clothes to target criminal activity that someone in uniform may not have access to. Many of this team’s accomplishments are remarkable:
• recovered 1304 grams of cannabis;
• recovered 34.59 grams of heroin;
• recovered 34.8 grams of cocaine;
• recovered 196 pills of controlled substances;
• recovered 212 grams of Psilocybin mushrooms;
• made 135 arrests for misdemeanor drugs;
• made 6 arrests for criminal misdemeanors;
• made 36 arrests for criminal felonies;
• made 72 arrests for drug felonies.
The administrative services and records division submitted the following accomplishments in 2015:
• The Police Dept. handled 46,948 calls;
• Traffic tickets issued: 9,011;
• Warning tickets issued: 6,508;
• Parking tickets issued: 14,383;
• DUI alcohol arrests: 169;
• DUI drug arrests: 26;
• DUI drug/alcohol combination: 3;
• 663 lockouts;
• 87 motorist assists.
The K9 Unit had a busy year for Officer Anthony Poli and his canine partner Diesel. There were 70 total deployments, 21 arrests and 48 narcotics/vehicle/currency searches. Total narcotics located:
• 1,625.712 grams of cannabis (3.58 lbs) with a street value of $27,520;
• 4.8 grams of heroin;
• 6,577.089 grams of Methamphetamine (14.5 lbs) with a street value of $127,000;
• 6.0 grams of PCP
• $101,150 U.S. Currency seized.
