Chief Brian Miller

Unfortunately I have some news that may cloud the holiday weekend.  We had a shooting/murder that occurred on July 5 at about 2AM.  Some late night party goers were outside 4406 Sheffield Ave. When a suspect wearing a bandana walked up and shot a 31 year old man several times.  The suspect fled and the victim was transported to St. Margaret’s hospital where he later died.  I currently have no further details, we are still collecting information.

Detective Lieutenant Zeke Hinojosa is running the investigation.

Chief Miller

We had a report of a Comcast cable truck with African American driver try to lure a young teenage girl into his truck in South Hammond.  The report is fresh and I don’t have alot of details. Our detectives are working with Comcast to identify the driver.  The girl was walking to a school event at Gavit. She was not injured or touched. When I get more I will forward it.

Chief Brian Miller

Today is the last day of school for the public schools in Hammond. We will have a minimum of five police officers at every middle school and high school to insure an orderly dismissal.

The last day typically can be a little chaotic, therefore; the last two years we have really been pushing the police presence. All our office staff and detectives are assigned to a particular school at dismissal.

I hope and pray it is a safe and happy day for our students.

Chief Brian Miller

Our bank robber is caught! On Friday May 9, 2008, a white male subject walked into the First Midwest Bank at Strack and Van Til’s (115 Sibley). He handed the clerk a note that announced a robbery, and demanded money. The robber made the clerk put the money in a binder, he carried, and he fled.

An anonymous caller gave us a tip which led to the suspect car. Detective Michael Nemcek matched the suspect vehicle with a videotape of the incident. A search warrant for the teal Chevy Cavalier resulted in the binder and the robbery note being recovered. Also, clothing was later recovered that we believe was used in the crime at the suspect’s residence. Michael Richard McKenzie age 43 of Hammond, Was charged with Robbery after review by The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office.

All suspects identified in this blog are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Our school reciprocity sting has ended. We started on April 14, and ended today. Every school, (21 total) was examined. The end tally: 482 citations were issued. 152 car towed. Most of the citations were for reciprocity, some for seatbelts and other miscellaneous offenses.

The breakdowns:
Clark 13 tows 15 citations
Career center 1 tow 1 citation
Hammond High 12 tows 17 citations
Gavit High 12 tows 25 citations
Morton High 3 tows 9 citations
Scott 7 tows 11 citations
Columbia 7 tows 9 citations
O’Bannion 6 tows 7 citations
Hess 7 Tows 12 citations
Lincoln 2 Tows 3 citations
Jefferson 4 Tows 9 citations
Harding 4 Tows 6 Citations
Layfayette 9 Tows 19 citations
Edison 11 Tows 18 citations
Irving 7 Tows 18 Citations
Kenwood 12 Tows 20 Citations
Maywood 8 Tows 12 citations
Franklin 3 Tows 3 citations
Eggers 10 Tows 20 Citations
Morton Elementary 7 tows 14 citations
Wallace 7 tows 14 citations

We will start on the apartment complexes and rentals very soon. I am extremely proud of Lieutenant Pat Vicari and the Traffic Division for this outstanding effort. I spent many of the mornings with them, in all weather, and they handled it well.

The National ‘Click it or Ticket’ campaign begins today and will end June 1st. We have received a federal grant to promote driving safety by insuring seatbelt law compliance. We will be working interesections where we have the most accidents. Please buckle up or you may be meeting one of my fine police officers soon.

I hope to see you soon at a crime watch meeting.

Brian Miller
Hammond Police Department

Today we were quite busy. We started off the day with a reciprocity sting at Eggers School. I don’t have the final totals, but I believe we towed about ten vehicles. One of the subjects had already been cited at an earlier sting at Hammond High. She apparently did not get new plates.

At 12 noon we ran a prostitution sting in the Stateline area. The operation, an oldy but a goody, is where we put out a female police officer dressed in civilan clothes walking on Stateline. Male subjects come up and offer her money in return for sexual favors and then we arrest the subjects for patronizing a prostitute. The transactions are audio recorded for future use as evidence in court. Our undercover doesn’t have to say much, this is like shooting fish in a barrel.

6 male subjects and one female were arrested. The first arrest came when 63 year old George L. Washington of Chicago Illinois allegedly offered our police officer money for sex at about 12:05 PM. He was arrested and his car towed and impounded. Next came Santiago Palacios age 67 from Calumet City. Richard Peck from Calumet City was also arrested shortly after. All these men were charged with patronizing a prostitute.

A female subject, age 36 from Hammond was observed by our undercover surveillance team making a drug buy from a vehicle. She was stopped and drug paraphernalia found on her person. Since she had a previous arrest an conviction she was charged with P.C. felony possession of Paraphernalia. After her case is reviewed by the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office we will release her name.

Oscar Peterson age 46 from Hammond, and Lonnie Riffett age 50 from Crown Point were the next males to be arrested for patronizing a prostitute. Peterson’s car was towed and impounded.

A Calumet City man then offered some drugs to our ‘prostitute’. She agreed and he came back 20 minutes later and sold her rock cocaine. He was immediately arrested. His name will be released after formal review by the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office.

The operation was a total sucess. No injuries to the officers and no property damage. All arrests were made without incident. We told each arrested subject that we would be performing this sting many times this year. Hopefully we made a dent in the trade.

Sincerely,

Chief Brian Miller

Note: All subjects identified in this release are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Well it finally seems like we are going to get a break on the weather. We are continuing the reciprocity stings although we had one planned for this morning that was rained out. Yesterday we towed 12 cars from Kenwood School.  We have towed over 100 cars and issued many citations in this ongoing operation.  I will have the final totals in a few weeks. As soon as we complete schools we will take a stab at the apartment complexes.  At one of the larger apartment buildings we have towed the same car three times! The owner just refuses to obtain Indiana plates.  I hope he will put some coffee on for us, we will paying him a visit soon.

With the nice weather coming, we will have more residents outside, working on their yards. This is sometimes accompanied by daylight burglaries of homes.  Thieves drive our neighborhoods, looking for homeowners occupied in the front or back yards.  The crooks know the house will be unlocked, so they will go in the front or back door depending on which part of the yard the homeowner is working on. Please lock your house when you are working in the yard. It costs nothing, but prevents an easy burglary.  Also, keep your garage door down, no use advertising the electric tools, lawn mowers and other goodies in your garage. We have had many burglars caught driving up and down alleys and scoping out targets for a late night return.  In the past, we have had some thieves run into a garage and make off with a lawnmower in broad daylight.  In short, always be on your toes!

Last but not least, we are still experiencing scams being committed on our residents. Subjects in SUVs or pickup trucks are wearing orange safety vests and hard hats and pretending to be city workers. They have managed to work their way into a few homes and make off with valuables. If someone comes to your door and claims to be from the water department, cable company or NIPSCO, please call the police and let us check them out.

Enjoy the good weather!

Brian Miller

Our 2 suspects from Thursday’s shooting were charged Saturday by the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office with 2 counts of Attempted Murder. This was the shooting that occurred close to the Carreer Center.

The suspects, Mark Olszewski age 27 900 block of Greenbay St. Calumet City, Illinois and Joseph Shell age 26 1000 block of Cherry St. were transported to the Lake County Jail.

I am extremely pleased with the charges, The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office did a great job!

Thanks to Officer Alex Alvarez, Lieutenant Michael Tumidalski and Detective Sergeant Steve Guernsey for their hard work.

On a closing note, one of the suspects has a ‘Thugs Life’ tattoo. Is prison part of that lifestyle?

Hammond Police = 2, Thugs = 0

The suspects identified above are Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

At about 1:00PM, we had a shooting incident at the corner of Carroll St. and Sohl, close to the Area Career Center. Two young males were alledgedly throwing gang signs at a passing Chevy Tahoe.   The passenger of the vehicle who was also possibly throwing gang signs, took out a .38 caliber snubnosed revolver and fired several shots at the two pedestrians. One of the boys was struck in the shoulder and lower back, the other received a very superficial wound to his arm.  They ran to a local church for help and an ambulance responded alongwith many police units.  We began chasing the suspect vehicle and the passenger bailed and ran through several yards on foot.  Both subjects were quickly captured in the area of Walter and Alice streets.

Suspects:
26 year old male from Hammond
27 year old male from Calumet City

We will release the names when they are formally charged.

We also found the gun used in the attack in the 5500 block of Alice St. It had six spent shell casings in it.

One victim is in serious condition the other left the hospital before he was treated.

I am very proud of all the officers who so quickly responded and captured two dangerous subjects.  Shooting two subjects four blocks from the police station, in broad daylight,  is just incredibly stupid.

Yep, crooks are really dumb.

Chief Miller

Today I came to work with a scowl on my face.  The last two days I have been out with my police officers performing reciprocity stings at the local schools.  They have been very successfull, on average we are towing eight to ten cars per day, from the operations.  Yesterday, at Hess School we arrested a subject that was a habitual traffic offender.  He committed a felony by just operating a vehicle.

The scowl came from fact that there are so many Illinois children receiving an education on my dime.  I don’t begrudge them an education, but the State of Indiana can barely afford to educate their own school children.  Many of the parents cited, have had their children in the Hammond Schools for two years or more and yet they do not live in our state.

The stings will continue until we have hit every school.  We will repeat the operation at the schools that have the most offenders.

The apartment complexes are next.

Not fun, but hey, nothing worthwhile is ever easy. This is worthwhile!

Your slightly angry Police Chief,

Brian Miller

We had an armed robbery at Arnie’s Doghouse, 1503 Indianapolis Blvd. At approximately 3:15PM, a Hispanic male (5′10″ 200 lbs.) entered the restaurant and displayed a black handgun. He stated ‘I want the money’. After grabbing the money, the suspect fled.

A brave customer ran out after the suspect and followed the suspect’s car for a few blocks. The customer was able to obtain an Illinois temporary plate number.

Although I am appreciative of the customer’s actions, I do not think it is a good idea to chase armed robbers.

If anyone has information about this crime, please call the Hammond Police Department Detective Bureau at (219) 852-2906.

Thank You,

Chief Miller