Sheriff: Suburbs a hot zone of gang activity

With a triple shooting Wednesday night on the border between Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates, and another gang-related police pursuit from Arlington Heights into Palatine the same evening, there's no denying that gangs have come to the suburbs.

"It's hard for these towns to adjust to the fact that gangs are everywhere," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said. "It's not a stigma against any town, because they're everywhere."

Although this may be hard for residents to accept, the typically placid nature of suburban communities is precisely what attracts gangs, Dart said. "They're not dummies," he said. "They're not going to be looking for places with the highest police presence. They go in the other direction."

Dart acknowledged that the Northwest suburbs are a hot zone of gang activity, but he quickly cautioned against hysteria. "There's many hot points right now," he said. "Is it more so than others? No. But is there definitely activity? Yes. More activity than we've seen in the past? Absolutely."

Dart's office says gang-intelligence officers have detected increased activity in pockets of Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Arlington Heights because of an influx of rival gang members.

"I feel for Schaumburg and Palatine, those communities, because last year we were overwhelmed. So I empathize," said Hanover Park Mayor Rodney Craig, who suffered through a gang flare-up a year ago. "It breaks a mayor's heart. You put a lot of effort into your community, and then you have these folks who come from who knows where. They come in and they start a problem, and sometimes you see it coming and sometimes you don't.

"The nice weather comes, and away we go. Look out, spring."

That can rattle residents when a crime like Wednesday's drive-by shooting of three children ages 12, 14 and 16 suddenly occurs. At Helen Keller Junior High School not far from where the Schaumburg shooting took place, Grace Novak said she picks up her 12-year-old daughter after school every day, even though they live nearby.

"I know there's been attempted assaults, attempted abductions in the area," Novak said. "I'm sure that there's activity that we don't care to have here, but I'm surprised it was a shooting. How does something like that happen right by a school?"

"Our crime rate is the lowest it's been since 1985," said Schaumburg President Al Larson. "This is something that's an anomaly as far as the village is concerned."

He said Schaumburg police were still piecing together how it happened. The three shooting victims are residents of Salem Ridge apartments in Hoffman Estates, just across the border, and were returning home after playing soccer when "some kid came up on a bicycle from another part of town," he said.

"There was some discussion about gangs," he added, which was broken up by an older neighbor. The boy drove off on the bike, but he apparently was seen using a cell phone. When the three teens later crossed the street to a Schaumburg convenience store, they were shot at from a passing pickup truck, and all three were wounded.

Larson said it was a conflict as old as time, only different today. "Kids get together, and in the old days they just duked it out," he said. "In this case, somebody had a gun, and some kids got hurt." Police have talked to the boy on the bike, but say they don't yet know if the argument and shootings are related.

Larson said what Schaumburg police were finding most frustrating was the code of silence. "Nobody says anything - everybody involved," he said. "Nobody will admit to anything."

"It's very tricky," Dart acknowledged. "We've been trying to change our activity to stay out in front of it, and we feel pretty confident we have."

Dart regionalized the sheriff's gang unit a couple of years ago into five different locales, so that now there are 14 to 20 officers specializing in gang activity in the Northwest suburbs. When gang activity pops up where it previously wasn't, they work with local police to direct pressure on that area.

"We've been more aggressive in our patrols and in our gang-suppression activity and our presence," Dart said.

The Arlington Heights incident was actually an example of that. Sheriff's police got wind of a possible gang rumble in Arlington Heights, and officers on surveillance spotted a car carrying three men, one brandishing a shotgun. They pursued the car into Palatine, where the suspects attempted to flee into some woods, but they were tracked down and arrested with the help of a police helicopter and the sheriff's bloodhound, Melanie.

"We're going to keep being vigilant and try to stay on top of it," Dart said.

"We don't want that to happen in Schaumburg or Hoffman Estates or anywhere," Larson said. "Our police department is working hard to eliminate the pockets of discontent in the community, and they've been very successful the last 10, 15 years."

Craig pointed out that when a gang flare-up occurs, it must be acknowledged, not hidden or denied. "For me, that's what you have to do, meet it and engage it," he said.

Community policing and neighborhood watches were essential, along with redirecting resources to put more officers on the streets. "You want to have a strong relationship with your community," he said, "and because of that you can turn things around. ... We are seeing results."

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