By Joseph Ruzich
The Chicago Tribune
MAYWOOD, Il. — Crime has decreased in Maywood, a community still reeling from the unsolved murder of a police officer nearly two years ago.
New policing tactics and increased patrols may have helped move the number of murders down from 20 in 2003 to five in 2007 and one so far this year. Other criminal offenses, such as aggravated battery with a gun, have decreased as well, according to statistics from the Illinois State Police and Maywood police.
“We feel we have a strategy that has shown some significant [crime] reductions,” said Deputy Police Chief Phillip Bue. The increase in patrols came after the death of Officer Thomas Wood, 37, who was shot in his patrol vehicle Oct. 23, 2006.
No arrests have been made, but, “we are getting closer,” said Police Chief Elvia Williams, who was hired just months before Wood’s murder.
In April 2007, Maywood began working with the Multi-jurisdictional Gang and Drug Task Force, comprising police officials from neighboring communities, the U.S. marshal’s office, Cook County sheriff’s police anti-gang units and the FBI. Maywood’s Police Department has 52 full-time officers and 24 part-timers for a city of about 29,000, and the task force provides added manpower where it’s needed most, Bue said.
The idea is similar to what Chicago did in the 1970s, putting increased forces where crimes occur, said Bue, who worked in the Chicago Police Department from 1970 to 1990, mostly in the tactical unit.
Brian Killacky, an investigator in the cold-case homicide unit of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, said tips in Wood’s case still are coming in and witnesses have come forward. A reward of $100,000 had been offered for information leading to the arrest of those responsible.
“We’re trying to keep up the persistence,” Killacky said. "[Wood] left five children and a widow.”
One of the new policing strategies implemented after his death involves stopping drivers in high-crime areas or known drug markets, Bue said.
“After we pull them over, we ask them what they are doing here,” he said.
Bue said that officers don’t profile drivers and that all stops are constitutional. He cited Terry vs. Ohio, a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said police can stop and search someone without probable cause as long as they have a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime.
“I’ve been preaching ‘Terry stops’ since I’ve been here for a year and a half,” Bue said. Without the court decision, officers could stop people only if they saw a crime being committed or had probable cause to stop the driver, such as a broken tail light or traffic infraction.
He said the tactical unit’s stops helped officers get 51 guns off the streets between last April and September.
Bue said Maywood residents are supportive. “Not all, but most are applauding of this more aggressive approach because they are sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he said.
Maywood also saw a decrease in shootings in the last few years. While there were 65 people shot in 2006, that number dropped to 35 in 2007 and 12 so far this year, according to state police and department statistics.
Correspondingly, there has been a spike in arrests. Seven people were arrested and charged with murder in 2006; 10 were arrested and charged in 2007. And aggravated assault/battery arrests increased from 23 in 2006 to 41 in 2007.
Officials credit new technology that allows them to build stronger cases against suspects. They cite baseball hats with hidden cameras, tracking devices that cling to vehicles and ones that can pinpoint cell-phone calls.
Williams said one of her goals is making the Police Department more accessible to the public because some officers have said they feel that residents see them as the enemy.
“We are trying to partner with the community, telling them what we are doing, in an effort to build their trust so they can provide us with more information and tips,” Williams said.
Resident Leon Conner, 89, said he has noticed an increase in police presence. “It seems like they are always pulling someone over,” he said.
Conner, who has lived in Maywood since 1941, recalled what he called the “glory days,” when the city had an abundance of jobs, businesses and grocery stores and little crime.
“Maywood changed in the 1980s when the drug trade took off,” he said. “I think most crime would disappear if police can get the dealers off the street.”
Copyright 2008 The Chicago Tribune