Police Beat by Tom Geyer

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.

Illinois State Police from District 7 headquarters, East Moline, will hold a roadside safety check somewhere in Rock Island County the weekend of April 3.
It is not known where they will set up that weekend, or on what day. Of course, they’ll be looking for drunk drivers, people driving erratically, people driving without seatbelts, and those driving with suspended or revoked driver’s licenses.
Now, just about every weekend you can find at least one or two Illinois State troopers in down-town Rock Island. Sometimes they park at the foot of Centennial Bridge watching for speeders and erratic drivers, and sometimes they park about 1,000 feet from the bridge and use their LIDAR to nail speeders coming into Rock Island. (Yes, 15th Street is a state highway.) And then just when you think you’ve made it into the city undetected, they’re behind you with lights going.
Notice I said the police use LIDAR, not RADAR. Anyone spending money on an expensive radar detector for their car have simply taken their hard-earned money and slipped it into someone else’s pocket.
LIDAR stands for light detection and ranging. You can measure speed, distance, rotation, etc.
It is not a wide beam. It is a very thin beam of light. All an officer does is point it a something me-tallic on the car that reflects the light back to the LIDAR gun and boom. They’ve got ya. Since it’s such a thin beam instead of a wide beam, it has to hit your radar detector for it to produce an alert.
I got a lesson in this out at a speed trap Davenport was running last year on U.S. 61. The man they stopped was mad that the radar detector he had just bought did not alert him to the cops. He still had it on and one of the cops pointed the LIDAR at it. It would not stop beeping. He just turned it off and cursed. And he signed his ticket.
Will there be ways to defeat LIDAR? No doubt at some point, some smart person will find a way. Change and advances in technology are always occurring.
But until you get yourself some of that new technology, speed over the Centennial Bridge at your own risk. And don’t say nobody warned you.

I learned some good news for home- and business-owners whose property was damaged recently by teens spray painting gang-related graffiti. A lawyer friend of mine I saw at the gym told me about Iowa’s Parental Respsonsibilty Law that says owners of damaged property can sue the parents of the kids for money to pay for repairs.
The Iowa Code is 613.16 Parental responsibility for actions of children.
That law states that the parent has a legal obligation of an “unemancipated child” or rather a child living under their roof, to pay for damages the child causes. Now, this is property damage such as is done with spray paints or other types of vandalism. (It does not include auto accidents and such.)
Property owners can get up to $2,000 for any one act, or up to $5,000 for two or more acts.
The parents and the minor child, that is a child under 18, are to be named as defendants. Check with an attorney, but it is my understanding that it can all be filed in small claims by the property owner without the need of an attorney. It is good advice though to spend a few minutes with an attorney just to make sure it is all done properly.

Davenport police looked carefully in this car for any bodies that may have been inside it. Witnesses told police that three males crawled from the wreckage and fled the scene. The rear of the car glanced off the tree. This crash occurred Friday, March 6 at 10:15 p.m. Had the car, a 1997 Nissan Maxima, caught the tree square, police said at least one person would have been killed, likely two, and possibly all three.

In the media section are four photos of gang graffiti that a reader in Davenport sent. Police are investigating a rash of tagging involving gang symbols. Both private and public property has been tagged by the gangs that include symbols of the Latin Kings, Nortenos, and Gangster Disciples.

Over the course of February the number of incidents of gang graffiti being sprayed on businesses, homes and at public parks exploded, Davenport police said.

Incidents went from around 11-15 incidents per month, to about 60 for February.

The Nortenos hit the Davenport Skate Park. The Gangster Diciples tagged the Wiese Building near the Putnam Museum. The Latin Kings have hit the downtown area hard, spray painting their signs on businesses and homes.

The Quad-City Times is tracking these incidents and would love to have your photos of this gang graffiti in the neighborhoods. We plan to use your photos to track the incidents on a map.

You can post your photos of gang graffiti here on the blog or you may e-mail them to me at tgeyer@qctimes.com.