Police Beat by Tom Geyer

Rock Island County law enforcement agencies, including the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department, Rock Island police and Moline police, already are beginning traffic enforcement programs that will last through the Thanksgiving weekend in order to stem the number of fatal crashes.
Rock Island County Sheriff Mike Huff said that the sheriff’s department was awarded a grant through the Illinois Department of Transportation to conduct traffic checks in rural Rock Island County. The checks will begin Friday and continue through Nov. 29.
Deputies will be on the lookout for speeders and anyone not wearing a seat belt, as well as violations of child safety seat laws.
Huff said the enforcement will be conducted during the nighttime hours on roads and at intersections where the highest number of accidents have occurred.
Moline police also received a DOT grant to run an enforcement campaign that also begins Friday and runs through Nov. 29. Moline police Sgt. Fred Mincks said the program is designed to reduce vehicle crashes through increased, highly visible enforcement of seat belt and speeding laws.
Rock Island police received a grant and started their drunken driving enforcement program on Nov. 9 That program, courtesy of a DOT grant, runs through the end of November.
Rock Island Police Chief John Wright said there will also be seat belt compliance checks in what he termed “traffic safety zones” during both the daytime and nighttime hours.

Davenport Police Cpl. Mike Schneider said he talked to the woman who crashed her Dodge Durango early Friday at Brady Street and Palmer Drive.
Schneider said the woman told him that she was messing with her cell phone and lost control while heading north on Brady Street.
The vehicle took down a utility pole and then sheared off a fire hydrant at Brady Street and Palmer Drive. The SUV then felled a sign for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and came to rest under a tree in the yard of the church. The woman fled the vehicle toward Central High School. She later called the police station.
The driver was issued traffic citations for striking fixtures and failure to maintain control. She did have a valid driver’s license and insurance.

Davenport police were searching early Friday for the driver of this 2001 Dodge Durango.
Cpl. Mike Schneider said the Durango was northbound on Brady Street when the driver lost control. The vehicle took down a utility pole and then sheared off a fire hydrant at Brady Street and Palmer Drive. It then felled a sign for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.
The Durango came to rest under the tree in the yard of the cathedral.
Schneider said that motorcyclists who witnessed the crash told him the driver fled the scene on foot toward Central High School.
Schneider said the driver will be issued traffic citations for striking fixtures and failure to maintain control of the vehicle. Other charges could be pending if the driver does not have a valid driver’s license.

The Iowa State Patrol held a Safe Saturdays enforcement throughout the month of June, beginning the program in the Quad-Cities on June 6.
Iowa State Patrol Trooper Dan Loussaert said that Safe Saturdays returns to the Quad-Cities this coming Saturday, Aug. 29.
Loussaert said that intoxicated drivers kill about 100 people per year in Iowa, and that nearly 25 percent of all fatal accidents in the state involve an intoxicated driver.
He added that police throughout Iowa arrested nearly 20,000 drunk drivers each year. Drivers ages 16-25 represent only 16 percent of registered Iowa drivers, but they comprise more than 30 percent of intoxicated drivers who are involved in fatal crashes, he said.
Loussaert gives good advice: “If you are going to drink at a party, make plans to stay there, have a designated driver, get a cab, but don’t drink and drive.”
Of course, police are gearing up for the Labor Day holiday. The Illinois State Police will hold two roadside safety checks in Rock Island County during that three-day weekend.
Illinois drivers should remember that a first-time offense in Illinois means having to put an alcohol ignition device on their vehicles before they can get any driving privileges.
That Illinois law took effect Jan. 1. Anyone convicted of drunken driving will be required to install a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device, or BAIID, and obtain a monitoring device-driving permit if that person wants to be able to have some driving privileges during the length of their driver’s license suspension.
The new law also requires offenders to submit a breath test every time they wish to start their vehicles and at periodic intervals after their vehicles have been started. The Illinois Secretary of State’s office will administer the program. The cost to the driver is an additional $1,300 dollars for the installation and rental of the machine along with administrative costs. That means a first-time DUI in Illinois runs about $8,300, police said.
Of course, police in Iowa also will be out in force during that holiday weekend.

Twice this week Davenport police and Davenport firefighters have had to care for a drunk person trying and failing to ride a bicycle.
Tuesday at about 10 p.m. on Myrtle between River Drive and 2nd Street, a drunken bicycle rider fell and was having trouble getting up. He hurt his left wrist. His choices were either to go the hospital and get fixed up, or go to jail. He chose the hospital, specifically, Genesis Medical Center-East Rusholme Street.
On Thursday, on 17th Street at Vine Street, a man had been drinking and was trying to ride his bike, police said. The man failed.
That call came in as a child lying in the middle of the street near his bike. Well, it wasn’t a child. It was an adult, and he left behind him a nice pool of blood. He, too, was taken to Genesis East.
Davenport police say that being drunk on a bicycle is public intoxication, for which people will go to jail, provided they don’t wreck and injure themselves.

The results from the Iowa State Patrol’s “Safe Saturday” project are in, and it seems that putting more cops on the streets at certain hours on certain days pays off.
For the month of June alone, Capt. Curt Henderson said that speeding citations increased 26.7 percent over June 2008, while OWI arrests increased 24.4 percent from last year. Seatbelt citations also jumped 23.2 percent while total citations issued increased 27.4 percent.
Now, for the “Safe Saturday” project, which increased manpower in certain areas of the state during Saturdays in June.
Because of that project, OWI arrests on Saturday night in June rocketed 120 percent over June 2008. Speeding citations issued on Saturdays increased 81.25 percent over 2008. Seatbelt citations on Saturdays increased 51.6 percent over 2008.
Iowa State Patrol Col. Patrick Hoye said that statistics have shown that Saturday is one of the deadliest nights of the week on the road.
He said that the Safe Saturday project might be the reason the total fatality count for June is 30, which is the lowest in 27 years.

And then on the waterways, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources ran “Operation Dry Water” over the weekends of June 26-28 and July 3-5.
During the June 26-28 weekend, eight people were issued citations for Operating Under the Influence, while 30 people were issued citations for boating while drunk during the July 4 weekend.
For the two weekends, more than 603 citations were issued for everything from OUI to not having enough life jackets on the vessels. Another 581 written warnings also were issued.
But the enforcement paid off, said Illinois Boating Law Administrator Sgt. Joe Morelock. “This is the first 4th of July holiday since 2005 that we have not had a boating-related fatality during the holiday weekend.”

As a reminder, every area police agency says they are always on the lookout for drunk or impaired drivers. And a Moline cop I was talking to the other day said to warn people that buzzed driving is drunk driving. Yep, in Illinois you can be taken to jail if you’re below .08. All it takes is an inability to control your car. You don’t lose your license, but everything else is the same, which means a hefty fine and court costs and an insurance company bill that all together will run into the thousands of dollars.

First, it was Davenport.
Now, Bettendorf and Moline have returned to the traditional black and white police squad cars.
Remember Adam-12?
“The fire department’s vehicles are traditionally red, while the police squad cars are traditionally black and white,” said Moline police Lt. Jerry Patrick.
“You used to hear on the old TV shows, ‘send a black and white,’” he said. “That’s what these are.”
Bettendorf and Moline had a reason for returning to the black and white cop car.
“Our white cars were starting to blend in too much,” said Bettendorf Police Chief Phil Redington. “We also felt that these cars are more visible,” he added. “There’s no doubt it’s a police car.”
Patrick added that police visibility is part of reducing crime, in that if people see a cop around they are less likely to commit a criminal act.
There is also an economic issue, too, Patrick said. “It’s a black and white, so the painting costs have dropped tremendously. It’s just two colors. The other cars also had a lot of graphics. Now, there’s not as many graphics which constitutes a huge savings whenever the cars have to be painted.”
There’s no word yet if Rock Island or East Moline will change to the old black and white. Rock Island has a number of brand new white cars, so it could be a while for them.

As if Davenport Police Detective Rich Tubbs and the other members of the Scott County Sex Offender Task Force that encompasses nine law enforcement agencies don’t have enough to do, now they are dealing with a case that certainly indicates a flaw somewhere in the system.

The arrest Friday of registered sex offender Ruben Perales is at least the fourth time Scott County officials have dealt with this guy. He is being held this time for posing as a cop and trying to extort money from other sex offenders. He also has an immigration hold on him, which means he’s on track to be deported to Mexico, again. See where this is going?

In 1991 Perales was convicted of indecent contact with a male child below the age of 13. He was convicted in 1993 of sex abuse third-degree with a male child below the age of 13. According to Det. Tubbs, Perales was deported after his prison sentence.
“He was deported in 1997,” Tubbs said.

In 2002, Tubbs said he got a tip that Perales was working at a kiosk at NorthPark Mall. Tubbs went out there and sure enough, Perales was there. Tubbs arrested him and charged him with failure to register as a sex offender. Perales was convicted of the charge, and then the Feds nailed him with charges of unlawful entry by an alien after deportation and false representation of U.S. citizenship. He pleaded guilty to the charges Jan. 27, 2003, and was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison.
Perales was released from the federal prison at Yazoo City, Miss., in Feb. of 2008, and was again deported.

Yet, Mr. Perales, now age 39, shows up again in Scott County and attempted to extort money out of other sex offenders by posing as a cop and telling them they need to pay $75 because of errors with their offender registry.

Perales is charged with extortion, failure to register as a sex offender second offense, living within 2000 feet of a school, and impersonating a cop. Immigration also has a hold on him.
There are 283 people listed on the Scott County Sex Offender Registry as of Thursday, April 9. Tubbs is trying to find out why this guy keeps coming back to Davenport.

“My guess is he has connections here,” Tubbs said. “But we really don’t know that answer. I want to find out.”

It took some serious digging on the federal web site Pacer which has federal court documents. Perales’ last case was back in 2002 and 2003 so I’m surprised there was anything at all. Old documents are purged quickly. According to those documents, Perales came here with his family when he was 4. But he’s a convicted felon, so that blows any green card chances he may have had.

The other question, how is it he is getting back in the U.S. given all the new security after 9-11?

As Tubbs said, “Like a bad penny, this guy keeps turning up.”

My Times colleague Dustin Lemmon has been following the unsolved murder of Harriet Crandall, 96 of Milan. Here’s the latest from Dustin:

This is an update on the murder investigation of 96-year-old Harriet Crandall, who was found dead in her Milan home August 30 after the house was set on fire. An autopsy of the womean who lived at 325 W. 4th Ave., determined she had been strangled.

The author of an unsigned letter, that contained details that investigators though legitimate and that Milan police received in November, has now spoken with detectives.

Milan Police Chief Mark Beckwith said it’s too soon to tell if new information they’ve received in the unsolved homicide of Crandall will help lead to an arrest.
In November police received an unsigned letter from someone with information about Crandall’s death. Two weeks ago police released a picture of the envelope the letter came in to the media in hopes of getting the author to come forward.
Beckwith said Tuesday that they made contact with the author shortly after the photo was distributed, but he wouldn’t say how. He said their information provided a new lead in the case that will be checked out.
“I’m not going to say it’s going to lead us to those responsible,” Beckwith said. “The detective will determine whether we’ll be able to go down this path.”

Illinois State Police will hold speed enforcment, seatbelt enforcement and patrols targeting drunken drivers throughout the month of April in Rock Island County.

Drivers need to remember that in Illinois failing to wear a seatbelt is now a primary stop. So any cop that sees a driver or passenger not wearing a seatbelt can pull them over without having to find other traffic offenses to perform a traffic stop.

Also, the cost of drunken driving in Illinois has skyrocketed now that first-time offenders have to get a blow machine attached to their car if they want to be able to at least drive to work. Otherwise, it’s a suspension of the ol’ driver’s license for at least 60 days; which means no driving at all.

So, beware, the cops are going to be out in force in April in Rock Island County. Make sure all the lights on your vehicle are working, including break lights and turn signals. Use your signal lights when turning or making a lane change, and don’t speed. That way you’re less likely to be stopped.