History 3

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1974

Portable two-way radios become part of the standard equipment of Evanston ’s police officers, thereby making it possible for each officer to be in continuous direct contact with the police dispatcher and with each other. The introduction of portable two-way radios is a major technological advancement that improves both officer safety and performance. This new level of communication technology permits officers to spend more time out of their cars and in contact with the public. The Evanston Police Department is one of the first departments in the Chicago metropolitan area to equip all its officers in this way.

1975

Officer Hank White becomes the department’s first crime prevention officer, a position assigned to the Community Relations Bureau.

1976

Recognizing the needs and problems facing the victims and witnesses of crime, the Department establishes the Victim-Witness Advocacy Bureau, staffed by professionally trained civilian social workers. Victim assistance units based in police departments are a rarity at this time. Over the ensuing decades, this program receives national attention and becomes a model program in the areas of support, crisis intervention, counseling, and referral services for victims and witnesses.

1980

Eleven members of the political terrorist group Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (FALN) are captured in Evanston on April 4. Nine are apprehended as the result of a citizen’s tip regarding suspicious activities. Despite the numerous weapons recovered in this incident (shotguns, rifles, automatic pistols, revolvers), not a shot is fired and no one is injured.

The Illinois Law Enforcement Administration grants the department funding for the Police/Community Comprehensive Crime Prevention Program. This, its first year, is spent researching and developing crime prevention strategies to address specific crime problems and citizen concerns. This initiative marks the employment of a new philosophy of crime control that provides a greater role for citizens to work with police in detecting, solving and preventing crime problems in the community. Innovative programs are designed for the residential, educational, and commercial sectors of Evanston .

The first computer terminals are installed in the Records Bureau, starting a multiyear automation project. Automation of police department records is expected to assist the department in day-to-day operational decisions, including resource allocation, identification of crime patterns, crime prevention planning, and assessing department operations and practices. [See 1982.]

1982

Howard L. Rogers

Howard L. Rogers is appointed chief of police on January 4. During his first year, Chief Rogers completely reorganizes the department, increasing four divisions to five, and creating a number of specialty units reporting to the chief.

The Department helps initiate and plays a role in several new community-based organizations, such as the Residential Crime Prevention Committee, the Police/Clergy Crisis Team, the Evanston Citizens Police Association, and the Police/University Consortium. The Chicago Crime Commission recognizes the Residential Crime Prevention Committee for its contributions to the community.

Most of the programs initiated in conjunction with the department’s Police/Community Comprehensive Crime Prevention Program now are fully underway, such as foot patrols, security surveys, crime prevention training/seminars, neighborhood watches, and property identification. Among these strategies, two are especially innovative: a crime prevention newsletter and a crime prevention curriculum.

The ALERT Crime Prevention Newsletter —recognized nationally—provides detailed crime information for each police beat, broken down by type of crime, date, street, and block number. The Department is the first to release and distribute such location-specific crime data to its community. In addition, the newsletter contains articles delineating methods of crime prevention. The ALERT is distributed by block clubs throughout Evanston .

The School-Focused Delinquency Prevention Program, designed for primary and middle schools, is intended to help youth avoid involvement in delinquent activity and to teach them how to avoid becoming victims of crime.

Bulletproof vests—purchased through funds raised by Evanston ’s Kiwanis Club—become part of the standard equipment issued to each officer at time of hire.

The Records Bureau begins September 1 using PIMS (Police Information Management System), a fully automated record-keeping system. The manual system runs in tandem with PIMS through the balance of the year. Through PIMS, data from field and arrest reports is electronically transmitted from terminals at the police station to a central computer in Chicago , where it is stored and processed. Many police departments in the Chicago metropolitan area use PIMS, thereby increasing the amount of information shared among them. [See 1980.]

Terry Gough is named the department’s first full-time crime analyst to track crime patterns and trends via computer. Previously, crime patterns were analyzed using manual methods, and the task was merely one facet of a position handling a variety of functions.

1983

The police department begins sponsoring Law Enforcement Explorer Post 921 in April. Explorer scouts are a division of the Boy Scouts of America for young men and women age 14 through 20. The post is started to provide interested youth with hands on experience in law enforcement careers and the criminal justice system, and to promote character development and citizenship training.

1984

William Logan

Evanston native William Logan is appointed Evanston 's first African-American chief of police on March 30.

Work begins in May on a $900,000 building renovation, due to be completed in 1987.

Chief Logan establishes a semi-annual awards program to give citizens and department members formal and public recognition of outstanding acts in support of law enforcement.

1985

The International Association of Women Police bestows a special merit award upon Sergeant Kathryn Hynds for several career achievements—notably being Evanston ’s first female Officer Friendly, its first female sergeant, and a member of the team that arrested multiple murderers Alton Coleman and Debra Brown.

Evanston participates for the first time in what is to become an annual event—the National Night Out anti-crime demonstration sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch.

Law Enforcement Explorer Post 921 is named post of the year by the Northeast Conference of the Boy Scouts of America. Officer Curt Kuempel, advisor to Post 921, is named advisor of the year by the conference.

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