911 Text Messages? Video Calls?

Over at the ChicagoDispatch blog (also banned under the current Department filters) there is a lively debate going on about this Sun Times article:

• Chicago's 911 emergency system should be modified to allow callers to send cell-phone images and text messages to dispatchers from emergency scenes, the City Council's most powerful alderman said today.
• A woman who was unable to place a call during the ordeal for fear of alerting the deranged gunman text-messaged her boyfriend to call police. If the 911 center had been able to receive that text message directly, the police response might have been quicker, Burke said.
• "A private citizen could immediately transmit a photograph of a person fleeing the scene of an accident to the 911 center, which then could immediately transmit that photograph through the system to the Police Department. That kind of resource would be a great improvement...They could then transmit it to computers in the squad cars," Burke said.

Pardon our laughter - hahahahahaha. We can't even get PDT's that work 75% of the time. Coverage gaps are counted in square MILES where signal strength is insufficient to get the PDT up and running. And if it is up, LEADS and SOS (Secretary of State) info is hard to come by at least three times a shift.

ChicagoDispatch wonders how the calltakers are going to have any idea where in the world these messages are coming from. We agree - just listen to the zone on a daily basis when they give out one of those "unknown call origin between Cell tower A and Cell tower B" that covers something like 8 square city blocks, 2 radio zones and 3 police districts.

We don't know who on Aldercreature Burke's staff is watching too many sci-fi flicks and Star Trek reruns, but would someone please unplug their television? Thanks.

Mystery Solved

This man is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's child. If located, please notify the proper authorities so that child support arrangements can be made.

Where Do These People Get Off?

Last week, we noted that one of Toddler Urkel's relatives was comparing herself to Jesus in an effort to stave off potential criticism of her appointment:

• "I am qualified for this job. There will always be critics. My mother told me Jesus walked on earth and he had critics," said Donna Dunnings, Cook County chief financial officer.

We were of the opinion that this was stupidity of the highest order. That was until we saw the Drudge Report on Barack Obama's appearance on "60 Minutes" along with his wife:

• Obama's wife also addresses the race issue when asked by Kroft whether she fears for her husband's life as a black candidate. "I don't lose sleep over it because the realities are that... as a black man... Barack can get shot going to the gas station," says Michelle Obama. "You can't make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen."

"as a black man... Barack can get shot going to the gas station"? Hey lady? Anyone can get shot going to the freaking gas station. It has nothing to do with being black. What a manipulative and completely asinine thing to say.

And then to top it all off, we made the mistake of reading Mary Mitchell again after Obama announced:

• Frankly, it is shameful that the most insulting question about race that has swirled around Obama’s campaign is about his commitment to blacks.

  If working as an organizer in a place like Altgeld Garden to empower residents to fight against environmental pollution and lead poisoning, moving on to the Illinois General Assembly and supporting legislation that targeted racial profiling and wrongful convictions, and pushing for the earned income credit wasn’t enough to prove his commitment to African-Americans, platitudes meant to assuage those voters won’t be enough to win this race.

• Just as his U.S. senatorial race afforded voters an opportunity to shake up the established political system, Obama’s presidential run offers the same opportunity.

  Black voters would be foolish not to take it.

So if you're black and don't support Obama, you're foolish and probably an Uncle Tom betraying the race. Incredible. An entire campaign based on everything that Martin Luther King Jr. marched against. Can anyone else smell the hypocrisy at work here?

Clearance Rate to Fall Farther

When are we going to kill all the lawyers?

• Criminal defense lawyers are going to court to try to force the Chicago Police Department and other agencies to release data they used in a study that claims a reform of police lineup procedures does not work.
• Since its release, the study has intensified a national debate between law enforcement groups that prefer the traditional method and reformers who want the "sequential double-blind" method to be universally adopted.
• The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, led by a group at the Northwestern University School of Law, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Cook County alleging that Chicago police, along with the Illinois State Police and two suburban departments, have illegally blocked access to the data.

Seriously. We need stacks of dead lawyers in the streets. Heaps. Piles. We need a cloud of vultures so thick that it blots out the sun for hours at a time. Can anyone guess why the Criminal Defense Lawyers want this method of line ups used?

• It found that in the sequential double-blind lineups--during which a witness looked at one photo at a time and police were unaware of the suspect's identity--witnesses were less likely to identify a suspect than during the traditional method of having a witness pick a suspect out of several people at once.

Big surprise there.

Rule #1 - When You're in a Hole ...

Stop Digging.

More revelations in Friday's Sun Times regarding the Federal lawsuit currently underway involving DEA agents and certain high ranking exempts:

• When Joseph Miedzianowski, once dubbed the most corrupt cop in the history of Chicago, was away in prison for life for running a cocaine ring, he got a pen pal.

  The letter writer was the former high-ranking Chicago police officer who had been assigned to investigate alleged wrongdoing by Miedzianowski years before the feds pounced on the crooked cop.

• On the witness stand Thursday, Risley said he didn't believe he had ever called Klipfel crazy.

  In the recorded conversation, though, Risley tells Miedzianowski that Klipfel is "f------ crazy" and "a stone f------ wacko."

  Risley also dubs Chicago Sun-Times columnist and WMAQ-Channel 5 reporter Carol Marin "a bitch" after she reported a story on Klipfel's allegations.
  

This a day after he had admitted the Feds had caught him on secretly recorded tapes. And a day after he contradicted a previously sworn deposition.

Who knows what tomorrow's testimony might reveal? And whether or not it is going to hasten the retirements of other as yet unnamed individuals. And whether or not it might damage the promotional chances of others. It boggles the mind.

Another Bright F#$%ing Idea

Where does Urkel get his brain trusts? Now the sheriff is getting into it.

• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is proposing some ideas to generate revenue for the county as it faces a $500 million budget deficit. The sheriff wants criminals to pay to be locked up and to foot the bill for their own medical expenses. It is an idea that is getting some support.

Um, support from whom? In what manner? Most county inmates are indigent, or have no visible means of legal support. And families certainly aren't going to be ponying up money that might already be earmarked for lawyers. This is a pipe dream. Urkel is going to be raising taxes, service charges and user fees at some point. And hopefully, a taxpayer revolt at some point will bring on the collapse of county government.

Can You Say "Rule #14" Violation?

From the Chicago Police Department Rules and Regulations:

• Rule 14 - Making a false report, written or oral

If you are ever found guilty of a Rule 14 violation, your entire career is toast. You are (in the eyes of the Department) a liar of the highest order. You cannot testify to anything in court as your testimony is automatically suspect. You cannot cooperate with outside agencies or task forces as anything you may be required to sign or investigate is tainted. You cannot and should not be listed on case reports or Search Warrant affidavits or inventories or anything.

And then we read this in the Sun Times Thursday:

• Risley gave a different account concerning tapes the Chicago Police obtained of conversations between Klipfel and a drug dealer who was a confidential informant. The tapes were part of the Chicago Police investigation of Klipfel.

  In 2003, Risley said in a court deposition that he never had a copy of the tapes nor did he ever tell Miedzianowski he had a copy.

  On the witness stand Wednesday, Risley acknowledged having a copy of them. And he admitted he had been secretly recorded as part of the federal government's investigation of Miedzianowski discussing the tapes with the crooked cop.

This explains part of Risley's departure under a cloud. A deposition is a sworn court report. Contradicting it under oath is not exactly a bright move. Secondly, this shines an ugly light on something that has been whispered in the darkest hallways over the past few years - how far up the ladder does corruption go within this Department? When you look at the lists of exempts that have been fired, resigned, convicted or departed under clouds, you really have to wonder.

UPDATE: And in the Channel 7 report, the Superintendent certainly doesn't come off very well:

• The superintendent told the jury he thought Medzianowski was an "average investigator" with an "attitude." He remembered how Medzianowski "would stare at you until you turned away. He did it to me a couple of times." But Cline also confirmed that when he evaluated Medzianowski he rated the officer at 96 and 97 on a scale of 100.

  Cline also told attorney Sally Saltzberg that after he was promoted to Area 5 commander he filed two formal complaints against Medzianowski for allegedly stealing and passing on witness statements to gang members. Cline also testified that while he never heard back from the department's internal affairs division, the information he provided was eventually included in the federal case that convicted Medzianowski.

So the one time boss of the gang unit rated Medzianowski 96/97 out of 100? What does that tell you about the old rating system? And as D/C of Area 5, he couldn't get information on the progress of an investigation he initiated in regard to what can only charitably be described as Official Misconduct?

Oh. Ok then. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

UPDATE: The Risley in question retired a couple years back. Post amended.

Another Stupid Idea

Back in July of 2006, we wrote about Cook County Commissioner Joseph Moreno proposing a house to house search to confiscate legally owned weapons.

On 02 February 2007, we pointed out that Moreno's proposal appears poised to become law in Cook County, though how enforcement will be carried out is unknown.

Now we have a proposal for a ten-cent-per-round tax being floated by Cook County Commissioner Robert Maldonado:

• What could be the nation's first tax on bullets is being floated as a way to help balance Cook County's budget.

  Commissioner Roberto Maldonado wants to slap a 10-cent-a-bullet tax on those buying ammunition in the county. It's one of dozens of plans offered to close the county's $500 million budget deficit.

All this is going to do is drive the few gun shops in Cook County out into the collar counties and cause anyone else who sells ammunition within the county boundaries to stop carrying ammo. You heard it here first. It'll be exactly like trying to balance the budget on the backs of smokers - everyone went out of state and out of county to get their cigarettes. The free market is a bitch when you try to control it. We will gladly spend the extra 30 minutes and 30 miles in a car to avoid paying Urkel and the rest of C(r)ook County any taxes on ammo.

Plus, there's always mail order to our out-of-state post office boxes.

Results Are Arriving!

Post em if you got em!

Clearance Rate Falters

Listening to WBBM this morning, this cheerful little quote (we're paraphrasing here):

• If you committed murder in Chicago last year, you probably got away with it.

And sure enough, according to Channel 5, Channel 7 and the Sun Times, the clearance rate for homicides fell to 36%, down from 42% a year ago and 47% in 2004.

And of course, the blame gets spread around liberally:

• Detectives, for instance, are dealing with a 2005 state law that required them to start videotaping interrogations.
• Some detectives say another 2005 policy that requires detectives to tell witnesses they have the right to leave the police station hampers investigations even more.
• Officials also noted that many of the department's 1,100 detectives have fewer than 10 years' experience, and there is a high turnover in some of the busiest areas of the city.

The dicks are overwhelmed, trying to do more with less, same as everyone else. Of course, downtown isn't cracking down on their overtime as much as they're cracking down on the Patrol Division (oops, we mean Bureau of Patrol), so the compensations are there. But if no one is bitching about the poor clearance rate, where's the impetus to improve it?

Congrats New Detectives!

50 more off the list. Anyone have the list? Post it and we'll publish it. Otherwise you gotta wait until tomorrow at the earliest. We aren't near a list right now. In fact, we aren't near Chicago right now. Ain't the internet grand?

Foreign Visitor

Whoever was visiting from Afghanistan around 0257 hours this morning, welcome! Hopefully, it's one of our brothers in blue visiting during some down time. Keep safe out there.

Serious Story? Or Bullshit?

Got a letter from a copper:

• Hey SCC, sorry if you got banned. Hopefully, you can get to the bottom of this info I just heard .... a couple of people who went to TARA training last week said the feds removed someone from class. This person was in a full CPD uniform, but was actually a foreign national with no association with the CPD. If true, this should be front page news in all the papers. Is it true that anyone can go into any uniform store and buy CPD uniforms without ID? And did this person have a star? A gun? How did he get in? How did he get caught? Is this some sort of probe to see what our training is like or our security protocols?

If true, this is disturbing, but not shocking. We all know al-Qaeda runs surveillance ops prior to attacks. Could this be a precursor to something? And if true, shouldn't the police be made aware that there are impostors in our midst (in our uniforms) attending the same security briefings and training we are? It's telling that they make their probes at a citywide training facility where everyone doesn't know everyone else and an imposter could easily get in and sit in on a training event.

Can or does anyone have info regarding this? If it's BS, fine, it isn't the first time we've been fed BS in the comments or via e-mail. But if it's true, then a bunch of people ought to be answering questions and maybe the media ought to do a little probing.

Go Urkel Go!

Gotta love that Toddler Stroger - the hits just keep on coming.

• Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is defending his decision to hire his cousin to fill an important job in his administration. President Todd Stroger says Cook County residents are getting a bargain. His cousin won't take a pay raise. And, he says, regardless of her lineage, Donna Dunnings is the perfect person to become the chief financial officer of Cook County.
• "He's got six-figure jobs he's handing out to friends and cronies at the same time he's laying off nurses, doctors and police. I think that's what's scandalous," said Claypool.
• "I am qualified for this job. There will always be critics. My mother told me Jesus walked on earth and he had critics," said Donna Dunnings, Cook County chief financial officer.

Ah yes, comparing yourself to Jesus just about shuts down all debate. Amazing. Hopefully, Todd's arrogance will eventually lead to the downfall of C(r)ook County government.

Banned? Or Not Banned?

Actually, we aren't sure if it's banned or if it's just someone down at HQ messing with the filters. As Rue St. Michel pointed out in one of the comment sections, when you try to load our site, you get a 404 error instead of the "You do not have permission to access this page" type message. As someone else said, this has happened before and the site came up at a later date.

But if the powers that be have banned us, so be it. Frankly, we're surprised it hadn't happened sooner. Yes, there is a colony of tiny brains that inhabit the board. And no, we can't prove that anyone who posts here is a Chicago cop - we have readers on 4 continents and upwards of 40% of our visits come from outside Chicago. If the people in charge are scared of maybe 800 people who visit twice a day and assorted hangers on who like what we post, they have bigger problems than we can imagine.

So the question arises - what was the trigger that finally pushed it over the edge? Was it the Area 5/025 unsafe building & OSHA inspectors story being spotlighted in the media? Or Bond claiming a "non-existent feud" with Streets & San? Or the various "merit" promotions brought to the attention of Noelle Breman's investigations? Bosses with thin skins? Or maybe one of the other blogspot boards out of control commentary led to a mass banning? We don't really care, we're just curious.

All this mean to us is a few hundred less hits a day and we weren't making any money off this anyway. It's a hobby - we enjoy doing it. It also means that the bosses that get talked about are going to have to read the board at home, just like everyone else. We never read the board at work and we certainly don't post anything from Department computers or answer e-mail from work. We did have someone check for us and we're still up at Streets & San, Chicago Public Schools, and the libraries. If anyone really needs to find us, there are ways to do so.

If you keep a mailing list of any sort, let people (especially retired cops) know about the SCC blog and the banning. Spread the word anyway. It makes the people with no sense of humor look that much more foolish.

UPDATE: Even banned, we did 2,600 hits on Monday - so the impact is negligible so far.

Ah Burton, You Silly Fool

Increased fines for running stop signs and stop lights:

• Motorists who run stop signs would face stiffer fines and--as an intended inconvenience--be required to appear in court under a proposed crackdown advanced today by a City Council committee.
  
  The attempt to get tough comes after complaints by aldermen that residents of their wards routinely are put in danger by drivers who roll through signs on neighborhood streets or disregard them altogether.
  

But you have got to love that Burton Natarus, master of the obvious:

• "I think police want to be crime fighters," said Ald. Burton Natarus (42d), the committee's chairman. "They don't want to be traffic cops."

So, what, now we're supposed to stop enforcing the other laws so Burton can feel good about stop sign enforcement? This Department has gotten away from enforcing traffic laws because the paperwork (and potential legal liability) involved with a simple traffic stop is so onerous as to make if far more desirable to chase the one bag dope pinch. But when has logic ever dictated anything this City does?

Rumors of Swiping

Swiping in and out that is. We managed to get a hold of Department Notice #06-49 which was last updated via Facsimile Message on 01 February 2007. The Notice states that Automated Attendance and Assignment Records will become active citywide on that date. Nothing in the Order states anything about swiping in or out. It's just attempting to automate another office job so the Department will be able to put another couple cops back on the street.

We also checked around for any sort of AdminFax that might say something about swiping in and out - nothing as of yet though if the comment sections are to be believed, TRU is going to be among the first to be swiping both in and out so as to cut down on the 4 hour days they are working and the classes they are attending on company time.

Good thing we don't believe even a third of what goes up in the comments sections.

In Case You Hadn't Heard ...

The Bears parade that was supposed to be held tomorrow, rain or shine, win or lose, has now been cancelled.

That is all.

Tax Tip, Deferred Comp, Banned?

If you're filing your taxes shortly, don't forget your telephone excise tax refund. At the bare minimum, it's $30 bucks and it goes up with the number of exemptions you claim.

Experts and economists are also seeing trends in the stock market that bode well. If you aren't into stocks or maxed out in Deferred Comp, consider it. Every dime counts when you're looking into retiring - especially 20 and out.

Can anyone verify if we've been banned from Department computers? This rumor pops up every so often and it's started again in the comments sections. We're just wondering. If the Department is so scared of a tiny little blog that barely gets 2,800 hits a day, probably by the same 800 people, then we are highly amused. We don't know if we're amused enough to switch blogging platforms and actually begin paying for another service, but it'd be interesting to say the least.

Terror Plots Disrupted

Unless you read a lot of the websites we do, you may have missed this entire story. We didn't see it in the Tribune or the Sun Times. It certainly wasn't covered on Channel 2, 5 or 7. LittleGreenFootballs.com points the spotlight at events over in Great Britain this past weekend:

• from News of the World (notw.com) -
  

  THE al-Qaeda plot to behead a British Muslim soldier was smashed after MI5 intercepted a panic order to the kidnap gang: "If you can't find a Muslim, ANY squaddie (soldier) will do."

  A military source revealed: "Security services and police had been watching for them to try to grab a Muslim soldier. But as soon as we knew they were willing to take anyone in any uniform " man or woman " and cut their head off then they had to act.

• from Jules Crittenden - The war with extremist Islam has just entered a new phase. Times of London: Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan and Iraq have issued orders for British cells to conduct a "low-tech" campaign of abductions and beheadings.

  ISLAMIC terror cells in Britain have been instructed to carry out a series of kidnappings and beheadings of the kind allegedly planned by the nine terrorist suspects arrested in Birmingham last week.

• from Protein Wisdom - What will be soon evident, I think, is a stunning philosophical inversion come spectacularly to light: as Europeans who once denounced the US for forcefully prosecuting the war against Islamists begin to recognize that their social liberalism and western guilt won't protect them from encroaching fascism gilded and reinforced with religious pretense, and so as a result begin calling on their governments to fight back in ways that the US Constitution would likely forbid, the US, for its part, always the continental wannabe, is only now coming around to that original European position - —helped out by endless partisan criticisms against the campaign, by a cultural weariness toward war, by an academic establishment steeped in transnational leftism with a desire to see the US "“humbled", and by media opportunism (or bias, take your pick) that has, by force of will, almost completely sapped us of our willingness to fight Islamism proactively.

We've thought about this on and off for a number of years now. We can't imagine that plots like these haven't been speculated about in certain terror circles. It's surprising that it seems to have only occurred in the former Russian provinces like Beslan, apartment bombings in Moscow and in Spain and London. . Can you imagine a school bombing here? A mall shooting? A copper being kidnapped and beheaded? There's just no way we are ready to deal with something on that scale. Certain individuals might be prepared, but as an institution? Don't even pretend.

And has anyone seen any kind of media coverage? Or is the first inkling that we're going to get is when we see the snuff film on the web?