VIOLENT CRIME 'MUCH GREATER' NOW

Police See More Drugs and Weapons.

ROCKFORD -- A lawyer, a stay-at-home dad, an aspiring artist, a barkeep and a
caregiver are among the 14 people who were killed in Winnebago County
so far this year.

Some were shot. Some were stabbed. Some were beaten. One had a heart
attack and died after someone pointed a gun at him.

Some lived in Rockford their whole lives. Some moved here as children,
grew up and had children of their own. They range in age from 18 to
75, and sometime between Jan. 1 and today, they were killed.

"It's the ultimate crime, taking someone's life," Winnebago County
Deputy Chief Dominic Iasparro said. "It destroys families. A person is
dead. A family grieving. It's unsettling to the public that these
kinds of crimes occur. It's horrendous to live in a neighborhood where
someone has been murdered."

The Rockford Police Department has opened 13 homicide investigations
this year. The county has logged one. Eleven people have been charged
in eight of the cases. Five of the investigations are ongoing.

At this time last year, the city had 10 homicides for the year. The
county had five.

There's no rhyme or reason for when homicides occur or seem to occur
in higher numbers, Iasparro said.

"The county's number has averaged three or four each year, pretty
consistent for the past several years," Iasparro said. "There's a
variety of reasons why murders occur. The greatest number in inner
cities are related to gangs and drugs and guns. Those are the at-risk
activities. But there are other reasons -- domestic situations, arguments.

Anywhere, anytime "It can happen anywhere, anytime," he said. "I know
a lot of people think it has to do with the weather. I don't think
weather has as much to do with this type of crime as people think. If
someone is intent on killing someone, it doesn't matter what it's like
outside."

The city had 31 homicides in 1996, which broke the record of 30, set
in 1994.

Homicides were dropping to an annual low of 11 countywide in 2000.
Then, they started to rise again. There were 26 homicides countywide
in 2007.

"One murder is one murder too many," Rockford police Deputy Chief Greg
Lindmark said. "It's the most violent crime you can commit. Our goal
is to solve each and every one of them."

Like Iasparro, Lindmark believes the motives behind homicides vary.
Some are drug-related. Some are gang-related. In some, robbery was the
motive.

"It's real hard to stop eight months into the year and try to figure
out where we stand in terms of the situation being worse or better,"
Lindmark said. "We have to look at the totality of everything.

The homicide is the headline, but we have to look at everything to
drill down on the causation and factors behind the crime."

Studying the numbers Some years, numbers can be deceiving, Iasparro
said.

"It goes much deeper than last year's numbers. You can't look at a
dropping or rising homicide rate and believe we are safer or not," he
said. "There's no explanation with homicides. With the multiple
shootings we see each year, any given year, it's a matter of inches
that determine how many homicides we have."

Today's homicides do share something in common, Lindmark said, but
it's not a trend or a statistic. It's people.

"There's always at least one person out there who knows what
happened," he said. "That's why it's so important for people to know
that we need their help. Whether it's a homicide, robbery or burglary,
we need their help. We don't want to concentrate so much on a number
as we want to get everyone involved in making the community safer."

When Iasparro joined the Rockford Police Department in 1965, violent
crimes, like homicide, were nothing like they are today.

"There never was a year where there were no homicides, but there were
years when there were two, three, four," he said. "Back then, we just
didn't see the violent crimes the way we see them today. It's no
comparison. The volume is much greater. The number of weapons on the
streets is higher. The amount of drug dealing is more widespread. The
crimes are more serious, more dangerous."