LINCOLN PARK — Some residents believe Chicago police could've done more to warn people about the recent string of three similar rapes in Lincoln Park — one of them on DePaul University's campus. A suspect has been arrested and charged with the most recent incident.
They were hoping to receive an alert after the second incident on Aug. 15, but Deputy Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy said officers were not provided enough information to put out a community alert until after the third incident on Aug. 20 when a surveillance video surfaced.
"The information was too vague and too general. It didn't really lend itself to a community alert at that time. When we issue a community alert, we're putting out a description. We're looking for somebody. There wasn't any [description]," Roy told a group of residents at a public safety seminar in response to the attacks held at DePaul's Cortelyou Commons, 2324 N. Fremont St., Tuesday evening.
Sandra Bercovitz, among several other residents at the meeting, said it's important for everyone to know about crimes in the area even if police can only relay general information.
"I don't think we need specifics. I don't think we need the name of the perpetrator. I think we just need to know that there are people in the neighborhood creating havoc," she said.
"We are now getting similar kinds of crime that we first had when I first moved in 25 years ago. I feel like it might be going backwards a little bit," she added.
Another resident asked if the third incident could have been prevented if an alert was put out after the first or second incident, but Roy said: "No. The information provided at the time was insufficient. If there had been enough information to put out an accurate community alert, we would've."
"We try to put out some sort of description, otherwise we'd just be saying, 'This happened.' We're trying to put out information so people can say, 'You know what ... I saw that guy lurking around the gas station,' or something. That's what we're trying to do, generate information or leads. To just say something happened really doesn't do that," Roy added.
The sexual assaults occurred:
• 3:45 a.m. Aug. 9 in the 1900 block of North Bissell Street
• 12:25 a.m. Aug. 15 in the 100 block of West Goethe Street
• 1:40 a.m. Aug. 20 in the 900 block of West Belden Avenue
During each of the assaults, a woman was walking alone to her home or was at her home's entryway when she was attacked, according to police.
Within 24 hours of the community alert, police charged Isidrio Valverde, 40, of the 5000 block of North Sheridan Road in Uptown, in the Aug. 20 incident after people who know him saw a surveillance image of a suspect sought in connection to three sexual assaults. Police did not charge Valverde in the two other sexual assaults they previously linked to the suspect.
Valverde's next court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 11.
Jill Krawczyszcm, who has lived in Lincoln Park since 1987, said she had noticed someone walking around the back of her apartment building and other buildings in the middle of the night, which is when the attacks occurred. But she said officers did not respond to multiple requests to test the fingerprints on her light bulbs.
"I knocked on all of my neighbors' [doors] across the street to say there's a nutcase walking through my alley. It was the same time, at two or three in the morning, when that girl got raped," she said. "I have a full description of the guy, right out of my window. And no one did anything about it."
In response, Roy said: "That's not entirely accurate. The information was followed up on. One of our sergeants in the 18th district followed up on it and we're coordinating investigations on it."
Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) said Wednesday morning that the incidents have "changed the way [her] office is getting information from the police."
"They're letting us know information beyond what happens in our ward boundaries. We need to understand serious incidents beyond our boundaries that can help us form a complete picture. That was a significant development," she said.
That's after the alderman called for better communication between her office, police and the community. The day the alert was released, she said she was "extremely concerned" that the police notification was sent to her office "significantly later than [she] would have expected" because she had not been notified of the second attack until then.
Smith urges residents to participate in the court advocacy program, which is when residents appear in court to help bring a tougher sentence.
For those who are interested, email CAPS018district@chicagopolice.org.
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