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Police say more heroin equals more crime

Editor's note: This story originally ran on Dec. 3, 2001 as part of the Daily Herald's "Hidden Scourge: Heroin in the Suburbs" series.

The crimes were so unusual that even before police caught the offender, they had a nickname for him -"the polite robber."

The 20-year-old, armed with a knife, demanded money from female clerks at two different Geneva businesses this past February. He then apologized, telling one woman he was having "a real bad night" and another - whom he referred to as "Miss" - that he didn't mean to scare her, but that he was "really desperate."

The robber, Christopher Dudding of St. Charles, would tell police after his arrest that what he was desperate for was heroin, and that it was his need for the drug that led him not only to rob the Geneva stores but also to burglarize two homes and steal from a restaurant where he worked.

Property crimes like robberies, burglaries and thefts have increased in many suburbs in recent years. Police say the jump is due in large part to the suburbs' burgeoning use of heroin and other addictive drugs.

"So many heroin addicts have to have their fix, and they'll do anything," said Joseph Vanacora, commander of the Cook County sheriff's police's narcotics unit. "They'll steal from their family, their friends, it doesn't matter."

Vanacora estimates 70 percent to 80 percent of all property crimes are drug-related. Though not all of those crimes are committed by heroin addicts, he said the drug's highly addictive nature makes its users some of the most desperate.

In St. Charles, police saw burglaries increase 59 percent between 1999 and 2000, the same time frame when they first noticed an increase in heroin use. Car thefts went up 64 percent during the same period.

Police Chief Don Shaw attributes at least half of the increase to addicts who need money to buy more heroin. To help combat the problem, the St. Charles police department keeps a book that lists all the names of known heroin users in St. Charles, Batavia, Geneva and the rural area west of Randall Road.

The problem, however, is not just isolated within those geographic boundaries.

A report released this summer by the U.S. Office on National Drug Control Policy shows the overwhelming majority of property crimes are committed by people on drugs.

The study found that 74 percent of men and 76 percent of women arrested for any crime in Chicago and Cook County in 1999 tested positive for drugs. Nearly 78 percent of all property crimes were committed by people with drugs in their systems, the study also found.

While the study did not separate the number of people arrested who tested positive specifically for heroin, it notes that the drug's use is on the rise in the Chicago area, especially in the suburbs.

That comes as no surprise to Shaw.

"If anybody thinks that it is not happening in their community, then they just don't understand," he said.

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