Chief Brian Miller

We are experiencing Gypsy scams during power outages. A North Hammond man had items taken from his home during a recent storm.

The power in the victim’s neighborhood went out one evening. Subjects came to his door and identified themselves as NIPSCO employees. While his attention was diverted, one or more individuals looted his home.

NIPSCO employees will be in clearly marked NIPSCO trucks. They have identification, and generally during power outages, they have little reason to work at individual residences. Please inform everyone you know about this scam so we can prevent further occurrences.

If someone comes to your door that you do not know, please immediately call the police!

Chief Brian Miller

The Fifth Third Bank at 1718 165th was robbed at approximately 9:48AM this morning. Two African American male subjects entered the bank, one jumped over the counter and they displayed handguns. They took an undetermined amount of USC and left in a getaway car.  The dye pack exploded and two of the subjects then left their vehicle (white van) at 165th and Indy. At gunpoint, they forced an elderly female in a black Impala to drive them to a location in Gary, IN.  One male was wearing a red shirt the other a dark one. They are described as young males, both short.  The getaway vehicle (white van) fled with only the driver in it.  The female that was carjacked was released unharmed. Her car doors were not locked at the time of the attack. If you have any information, please contact Detective Sergeant Rich Tumidalsky at (219) 852-2906.

last week the Hammond Police Department Traffic Unit (led by Lieutennat Pat. Vicari) finished a reciprocity sting at all Hammond Schools.

For those of you that are new to the problem, we have a large number of Illinois students that attend Indiana Schools. They use a friend’s or relatives address as their “home” and register their children. We pay the taxes for their children to attend our schools.

We set up squads at the schools and stop cars with Illinois plates that are dropping off students. We compare the license information with a roster provided by the school.

We do this every fall and spring. This year we did mornings and afternoons to try and cover all bases.

Here are the results:

Columbia Elementary 6
Hess Elem. 5
Layfayette Elem. 9
Harding 3
Irving Elem. 7
Jefferson Elem. 4
Kenwood Elem. 6
Morton Elem. 2
Gavit Middle/High 9
Eggers Elem. 11
Franklin Elem. 8
O’Bannion Elem. 2
Lincoln Elem. 7
Hammond High 17
Wallace Elem. 5
Morton/Scott 6
Edison Elem. 5
Clark Middle/High 7
Maywood Elem. 9

Total: 128

We also hit all major aprtment complexes throughout the city. We left over 500 warnings and will come back in 60 days to cite and tow vehicles that have not been plated with Indiana plates.

Chief Brian Miller

You may have seen the two portable radar signs that we received from the Muncie Police Department. We wanted portable radar signs for some time, so that we could let people know their speeds on our major thoroughfares. Unfortunately the cost was prohibitive. Two signs would cost us approximately $25.000.00 wow! My traffic lieutenant (Patrick Vicari)was not be be daunted. Through the Indiana Drug Free Alliance, Pat found out that Muncie had two signs that they were not using and they were giving them away! I know! You’re thinking there must be a catch. There was….we had to have them reprogrammed and overhauled. So… we trailered them from Muncie to Indianapolis and for the nominal cost of $4000.00 we had the signs completely overhauled. Now we have two portable radar signs, one at 165th and calumet ave. And another at 169th and indianapolis. For now we have them programmed to say “no left turn” in our construction areas. Soon, we will be using them to monitor speeds on our major streets.

We can also put any message on them that we desire. I was thinking “there is nothing to see here” or something completely off the wall just to get people’s attention. They still have the Muncie Police tag on them, soon we will replace them with Hammond Police stickers. Coming soon to your neighborhood, radar speed signs!

Brian Miller

Last night, Assistant Chief of Police John Doughty and I worked the streets together for several hours. John picked me up at 5:00PM in his marked car (he drives a black and white also). We started slow, and backed up a patrol unit, Officer Jason Gonzalez.  He had a car stopped at Calumet and Chicago for loud music. He told me the stereo was so loud it was rattling Jason’s rear view mirror. I was glad my officers are enforcing this statute ($500.00 fine and we tow your car. Total $620.00 for the pleasure of rattling a neighborhood’s windows) it has always been an issue at crime watches.

John and I took our first call at about 5:30PM. It was the classic domestic disturbance with Fred and Wilma flinging the fine china at each other. We were able to arbitrate a temporary solution and then we moved on.

I was starting to remember how much I love this job. Driving in a patrol car with the windows down. The weather was beautiful and there was lots of people out.
There is nothing better than this, meeting people, solving problems, a cop’s life is good. Yes, I remember the nights of gut wrenching terror, the crime scenes involving children, but for now I just focused on enjoying the positive moment.

We shadowed our gang unit to the 6200 block of Jackson St. They introduced us to 4 suspected Latin Counts (an off shoot of the Kings). Our undercover units had seen one of their friends tagging a building with gang graffiti and our gang officers were trying to get the tagger’s name so they could effect an arrest. The kids were respectful (most in their upper teens) and I hoped our gang officers will have some success changing their minds about how “cool” it is to be in a gang.

We took a few nuisance calls (loud music, parking problem) and then backed up Officer Dominic Stabalito on a suspicious person stop. He had stopped a female subject in the 5600 block of Sohl Ave. Dominic said that he saw her do a hand to hand deal with a passing car.  She is a suspected prostitute and drug user.  She continued to deny her actions and stated she was just having conversation with the car.  Officer Kelly Mickey arrived to pat search the suspect (we don’t allow same sex searches for obvious reasons). Kelly quickly located three hypodermic syringes and two tablespoons with burnt bottoms in the girl’s brassiere. In addition,  a small baggie was found that contained suspected heroin. Officer Mickey was quite upset with the suspect because she asked her several times if she had any needles on her before the pat down. A needle stick is a cop’s worst nightmare. The girl stated she did not and so we were agitated when she indeed had three syringes on her person. The suspect went to jail with various charges and we left the scene somewhat satisfied.

Our next call was the most exciting, radio dispatch gave out a burglary in progress on Michigan Avenue. We responded lights and siren (I love that sound) with the other units. We had six patrol units that were on scene within four minutes and a total of  eight police officers. Unfortunately it turned out to be a false alarm, but I was still very impressed by my officer’s quick response.

Throughout the rest of the night we handled more menial calls and patrolled areas where we had promised to show a continued presence.

I was gratified by the experience and will be trying to patrol at least one night each week during the warm weather. We have a very young police department and their enthusiasm for the job is very contagious. I think it helps them to see that the police administration is out on the street showing support for our mission.

I truly am blessed to have been a lawman all my adult life. I cannot think of a better career choice. Last night really reminded me why I became a cop. To protect and serve those who cannot protect themselves. It really doesn’t get any better that that.

Brian Miller

Many of you may know I drive a black and white marked car like all patrol officers. I like to go to calls and assist my units. I do this for several reasons (1) I like to see what’s going on in the streets, so I can best place my resources. (2) I like to lead by example. I believe you can’t lead from behind. (3) I just plain like police work. Even with 18 years under my belt, it never gets old.

Tonight while patrolling the streets I saw a number of interesting things. Most of you have probably seen the hawkers with the pizza signs standing out in front of one of our major pizza chains. Tonight, the rush hour travelers were treated to a different sight.  One of the hawkers was allegedly exposing himself to passing motorists. He was arrested by our police officers and fired by the pizza chain.

One of my motorcycle officers stopped a female for a traffic infraction. She also had a female companion and two small children in the car. Upon checking, it was discovered that the driver had a warrant for failure to appear, possession of marijuana. Low and behold her car also smelled heavily of ……you guessed it… marijuana.  She had concealed marijuana on herself, but gave it up during questioning. Although her and her girlfriend denied it… I believe she was probably smoking it while driving with the children in her car. Sadly, we will turn it over to children and family services.

Our bicycle officers were out in force also tonight, Harrison Park and Indi Illi Parkway were big targets tonight for these units, they also are patrolling Woodmar. Hessville and Robertsdale will also see bike police.  Bike patrols are very popular with residents, I prefer patrol cars, but if the public loves them, who am I to argue?

Throughout the evening I remarked many times about the number of police cars at each call that I responded to. There was at least two and sometimes three cars at each call. At many crime watch meetings citizens tell me that they don’t call the police because they don’t want to bother us. They also say that they know we have more important things to do. Please call us!  Tonight we were bumping into each other on calls and could have responded any where that we were needed.

Tuesday night I am shadowing our gang units. I’ll give you a review later.

Hope to see you at a crime watch,

Brian Miller
Chief of Police

With May here we are beginning our annual training. The State of Indiana requires each police officer to receive 24 hours of in-service training. In addition to qualifying with our weapons, we have to have some emergency vehicle operations training (driving) and defensive tactics (ground fighting, basic self defense for cops).  It’s often difficult to get 211 sworn officers through all the training we are required to complete.

Our hostage negotiators just finished a five day training course. In the past they have been very successful in negotiating with barricaded gunman and other desperate characters. They augment our SWAT Team and accompany us on all high risk search warrants, and of course any suicidal person or barricaded gunman calls.

The Northwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy is out at our firearms trianing facility this week. Our firearms instructors assist in training all the basic police recruits for the region. They have a class of 13 brand new police officers.  None from Hammond this time, we are almost fully staffed at 211 (we have 210 right now).

I am attending flood fight operations training in August. It is a crucial skill for our city with our recent levy problems. Since January 1, the police department is also tasked with providing emergency management for all critical incidents.  I have attended numerous classes in emergency management and hope I will be prepared for any potential disasters.

Our sex crimes (special victim’s unit) investigators are also at school this week. They are taking advanced training to deal with child predators.  I worked in sex crimes and know the importance of training. We need to stay one step ahead of those who prey on children.

We are also beginning our sexual crimes registry check. Twice a year, we go to each of the sexual offenders residence’s in Hammond and insure they are living and working where they are registered. It is important work, because they don’t like to comply and often will move without the required legal notification. If we find they are in violation of the terms of their required registration, we turn the case over to the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office and they are charged with a felony.

Our bicycle police units will begin patrolling soon. You will see them in your neighborhoods and on our major streets.

Get out and enjoy the nice weather!

Chief Brian Miller

Over the weekend we had a purse snatching at Menards Hardware Store. The suspects are described as African American males in their teens. One was described as 5′5″ and 140 pounds. Both had on dark colored “hoodie” sweatshirts.  We believe these subjects also took a purse from a woman at the Ophelia Steen Center, 5900 Columbia Ave. They are on foot, so most likely they live close to the scene of the two robberies. If you have any information, please call our detective bureau at (219) 852-2906.

On Tuesday April 7, 2009 at approximately 5:30AM, the Hammond Police Department SWAT Team along with the police Special Deployment Unit (Narcotics) executed a search warrant at 905 Carroll St.  SDU had made controlled buys of narcotics from this residence.

Derrick Shontay Jones age 27 was arrested and later charged by the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office with Dealing Narcotics and maintaining a common nuisance.

A stolen handgun was also found during the search of the resident.  Subjects had been allegedly standing in front of the residence, selling narcotics and intimidating area residents.  They allegedly told several residents to stay off the sidewalk in front of 905 Carroll St. or they would physically harm them.

No police officers were injured during the execution of the warrant and the suspect was arrested without incident.

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

Chief Brian Miller

By now most of you have heard about the Walmart rumor.  On Wednesday, we recieved a phone call from the Gary Police Department.  They stated that kids at one of the local high schools had been texting a message about a gang intitiation.  The gang member want- a -be’s had to shoot three subjects at the local Walmart to get into the gang.  We didn’t know what gang, or what Walmart.

We immediately called Hammond Walmart and let them know about the potential for danger.  We also had our patrols do random parking lot patrols at the store.

Later that evening, Walmart called our police supervisors and told them that it was a nationwide urban legend and that they received a message form their corporate office about the “rumor”.

I also checked it on the internet site “snopes”.  It had it listed as an urban legend so I’m pretty sure it is safe to shop at our local Walmarts.

A lot of effort to curb a rumor, wouldn’t you think?

Always feel free to drop me a line when you hear about one of these “rumors”. Chances are, we’re hearing it too.

Chief Brian Miller