One suburb's relentless fight against violence

Burying one's head in the sand is never a sensible course of action. And neither is assault and retreat.

Hanover Park, in reacting to four murders inside two weeks just a year ago, instead set forth to establish a major shift in the way it polices its citizenry in order to establish greater trust, a greater intelligence network and better contact with kids who could choose the wrong path.

What it all boils down to is that Hanover Park police have pledged to get to know the people in the community.

Village President Rodney Craig says things have quieted down in the last year, something he attributes in part to the change in policing strategies.

It may be too early to tell whether it's working. Violent crime has a habit of occurring in waves and peaking with the temperature. But Hanover Park philosophically is on the right track.

Between May 23 and June 6 last year, four murders rocked the village. Violent crime was nothing new to Hanover Park. But not on this level. Not all at once.

Jesus Sanchez, 16, was shot to death while walking home from a park where he'd been playing soccer. Police believe it was a gang killing. No arrests have been made in that case. Norma Favela, 31, was beaten to death. She was pregnant. Her boyfriend was charged. Pamela Sue Howat, 51, was stabbed to death. Police arrested a former co-worker she'd dated briefly. Diontae Roberts, 23, was stabbed to death at a party. Police made an arrest. They say it was another gang crime.

It's not easy to anticipate or prevent homicides like Norma's or Pamela's.

It's not easy to prevent gang homicides either. But it is possible to make a dent in gang crime by tracking gang members, getting to know them and those they would recruit. And to be a visible and trusted member of the community.

Hanover Park has established an Area Response Team in which cops become part of their beats - not just reacting to crime but dealing with its causes, from social issues to property upkeep. The village has added new police officers and is committed to hiring more. It provides e-mail alerts on crime to interested residents. And it has a safe homes program in which officers and a social worker visit the homes of kids who might be associating with gangs.

"We're trying to foster a relationship beyond the traditional police approach of writing a report, issuing a ticket and leaving," Deputy Police Chief Tom Cortese told Daily Herald reporter Kimberly Pohl. "We're interacting with the community."

That daily interaction is what builds trust and makes it more likely that police will be tipped to criminal activity by the vast majority of residents who just want a peaceful place to live.

It's a policy that has paid dividends elsewhere. Elgin and Mundelein use similar programs; so has Rolling Meadows.

Elgin's new police chief, Jeff Swoboda, was a member of the fledgling Resident Officer Program of Elgin (ROPE) 15 years ago when the city saw two dozen homicides in one year.

He was promoted to chief, in part, on the strength of his ongoing commitment to that program. He and ROPE officers since him have lived in and operated out of city-owned houses in troubled neighborhoods.

Many of the programs Hanover Park has started mirror what Elgin has employed for years. Elgin still has its share of crime problems, but the murder rate is down to about three per year.

"(ROPE) was a catalyst for the neighborhoods," Swoboda said. "It takes the ROPE officer working with motivated residents to have lasting change. We could go into a neighborhood and make a bunch of arrests, but that wouldn't solve anything."