WICKER PARK — A group of neighbors — most from a two-block stretch of Bell Avenue recently hit with a string of daytime burglaries — aired their frustrations over slow response times to local cops at a packed community police meeting in Wicker Park on Wednesday.
"Everyone is very affected by all of this [crime] and there is very little response unless you go public with it. It's the Wild West. There is a massive lack of manpower. We need police," a resident named John who lives in the 1300 block of North Bell Avenue, said.
Lt. Joseph Giambrone told the resident that interim Cmdr. Fabian Saldana recently asked Giambrone for feedback on how to improve the district. Giambrone's response: "manpower."
Three new officers in training have joined the district as of Monday and will be helping to "get more bodies" on the street, including on bike patrol, Giambrone said.
Gladys Diaz, who lives in the 1400 block of Bell Avenue, said there is "an uneasiness you can feel" after the incidents. Diaz called the vibe "uncomfortable."
Linda Springer, Diaz's neighbor, returned home from work on Feb. 29 to find her kitchen window removed and her television stolen. Springer said it took a few hours for police to arrive at her home, and it wasn't until several hours after the initial response that a detective came by to dust for fingerprints.
Two days after the burglary, the same offender may have returned because her window was removed again and there were items from her bedroom drawer strewn around her floor, Springer said.
Officer Gretchen Chavez told Springer that because the burglary had ended by the time Springer returned home, it was not "in progress" and at that point the situation was a report that needed to be made. Had the burglary been "in progress," with an offender onsite, the police would have been there faster, Chavez said.
Diaz and her neighbors said there have been five burglaries within the past month on their block or the block east of them, all with a similar pattern of a window being pulled out to gain entry.
Sgt. Felipe Reyes confirmed that three of those incidents are currently under investigation.
The pattern matches a burglary captured on a YouTube video by a resident of the 1600 block of North Bell. At the end, the thief walks away with a wheeled suitcase stuffed with stolen electronics.
"Now, every time I see someone in the alley pulling a suitcase, I really want to walk up to them and ask, 'Where are you traveling to?' " said Karen Herbst, another frustrated Wicker Park neighbor.
A woman who asked to use only her first name, Megan, said that she feels like nothing has changed in the past three years that she has been sporadically attending Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) meetings.
"A phone tree? That's so 1984," said Megan, who cited Facebook neighborhood watch pages and Twitter as fast and effective ways to spread photos of burglars.
Sgt. Felipe Reyes said that he understands and agrees that videos showing criminals faces should be shared but emphasized that the information needs to go through a process.
"Most of the time, the detective division is the one with the video," Reyes said, while Liz Rios, a CAPS facilitator, said that the department has still photos of the offender's face and will publish the photos when they are cleared for release.
There was some praise for local officers.
A homeowner who said a brick was thrown through his window at 3 a.m. last Saturday in the 2100 block of West Schiller Street thanked police for arriving so quickly after he called 911. "It was 30 seconds, you guys were crawling all over," the resident said.
Beat 1424, the area where the residents and small business owners who attended Wednesday's meeting reside, is bordered by North Avenue on the north, Division Street on the south, Wood Street on the east and Western Avenue on the west.
Meetings for three Bucktown and Noble Square beats are set for next Wednesday and Thursday.
View a map of all Shakespeare district beats here. More information on particular beats and meetings is available on the Chicago Police Department's new website. Residents can also follow the local police on Twitter at @ChicagoCAPS14.
