CRIME HOT SPOTS TO BE TARGETED BY TACTICAL UNITS

ROCKFORD - A rash of auto thefts in a crime hot spot versus a rash of
residential burglaries in a neighborhood.

Both are what police classify as "type 1" crimes. If you were to put a
dollar amount on the value of the property being stolen, police should
concentrate their resources on stopping the car thefts, right?

Wrong.

"People coming home from work and interrupting a burglary, that's a
homicide waiting to happen," Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers said.

Starting next week, the sheriff's department will deploy a new
tactical unit to curtail any number of recurring crimes such as armed
robberies, gang violence, arson, burglaries or any criminal activity
that is found to be on the rise and placing peoples' lives in jeopardy.

The Special Focus Unit - a six-man unit consisting of a sergeant, a
senior deputy and four deputies - will work primarily from 4 p.m. to 4
a.m., and will use crime-data analysis to identify crime trends and
the frequency at which the crime occurs. Once the hot spot has been
identified, the Special Focus Unit can determine where, when and how
to deploy their resources.

"These guys will be doing what every officer wants to do, but can't do
because they're responding to calls for service," Meyers said.

The officers will work in uniform in squad cars or undercover in
unmarked cars depending on the crime.

Deputy Chief Scott Meyers said he envisions the Special Focus Unit
being a resource to the narcotics and detective units, but will not
serve the same role.

"The primary focus of the team is to attack crime at the street
level," said Deputy Chief Scott Meyers.

The Rockford Police Department tactical unit, the M-3 Streets Team,
was activated in January 2007.

The unit, which also specifically targets high-crime areas, consists
of enough crossed-trained officers to have a presence 24/7 in the
city. Police Chief Chet Epperson said the unit has been a success in
that it augments daily and nightly police patrols.

"It allows us to have extra time to concentrate on things other than
calls for service," he said, "such as prostitution, high-crime areas,
whether it be guns, gangs or drugs, or our alternative drug strategy
area. We can use them for anything that will take a little bit above
the time the officer can spend because of the calls for service."

Debra Weaver, president of the Coronado Haskell Neighborhood
Association, said she established a relationship with the city's M-3
unit, which she said has been instrumental in keeping drug dealers at
bay.

"I would call the head directly," she said. "When I would see thugs
standing on the corner looking down the alley with walkie-talkies, to
me, that's a red flag. I would just call police, and let them know,
and it's their job to the do the rest."

The rest could be watching and observing or making an arrest
immediately, Weaver said.

"When they work undercover, you don't even know they are there until
they are there."

Scott Meyers would not specify which hot spot crime the Special Focus
Unit would tackle first, but he said, "Burglaries are a pet peeve of
mine.

"I welcome the opportunity to be more proactive and go out and do
things based on what your analysis says can and should be done."