Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from the March 18 meeting of the Springfield City Council. Four Springfield police officers were disciplined – and one of them will serve a six-day unpaid suspension – in connection with their work at the site of a Sept. 5 car-motorcycle collision in which a recently […]
police
Posted inArts & Culture
Springfield speaks out on race
Current events have thrust race relations in America, specifically between African Americans and law enforcement, into the spotlight. During this roundtable discussion, five panelists plus a moderator will discuss the role(s) that race currently plays in our community and trace these roles back to the time of plantations and slavery. Panelists will take a close […]
Posted inNews
Supreme Court strikes down recording law
Watch what you say; it can now be recorded without your knowledge or consent. The Illinois Supreme Court decided this very thing last week in a pair of unanimous decisions that invalidated a state law requiring “two-party consent” to record conversations. The decisions bring Illinois in line with the majority of other states and further […]
Posted inNews
Sniffing out trouble
Springfield patrol officer Dave Pletsch prepares for a training search with his dog, Utah, in a building on the Illinois State Fair Grounds. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Inside a livestock building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds, a man is hiding stashes of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine in state-owned work vehicles parked inside for the […]
Posted inNews
Drug dogs fail the sniff test
Flip a coin and pick a side. Repeat 50 times. Chances are, you’ll guess the coin toss more often than drug-sniffing police dogs in Springfield found contraband during traffic stops in 2012. Traffic stop data reported by the Springfield Police Department shows the police found contraband in 25 percent of searches prompted by a drug […]
Posted inNews
Graffiti grows up
Ryan Wilson (left) and Spencer Stokes show off a graffiti work in progress at Clay’s Popeye’s Barbeque in Springfield. They are part of Total Visual Renewal, a newly created graffiti crew in Springfield.. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Though it started as mere vandalism, modern graffiti has become an art form, and it’s making an appearance […]
Posted inNews
Looking for jobs
A local activist group is putting pressure on the City of Springfield to hire more minorities and to only work with contractors who also hire minorities. Larry Beckom of Springfield leads Bridging the Gap, a group dedicated to ensuring minority job opportunities. He calls the city’s record of minority hiring “dismal,” and is pushing for […]
Posted inNews
Federal auditors visit Jerome
U.S. Department of Justice auditors spent two days in Jerome last week reviewing how the village has handled federal Drug Enforcement Administration grants. The auditors declined to identify themselves. “I’m not at liberty to say,” one of the two auditors told a reporter who asked what agency employed him. However, several sources, including Mayor Harry […]
Posted inNews
Reformers: sex offender mandate would hurt Illinois
As Illinois lawmakers debate a bill to increase registration requirements for sex offenders under a federal mandate, reform advocates say it would cost the state too much. They say many other states have declined to enact the federal law for the same reason. Currently, most sex offenders in Illinois are required to register for 10 […]
Posted inNews
Will police torture set convicted rapist free?
No one disputes that Stanley Wrice was beaten by Chicago police to extract a confession. Now, the state Supreme Court will decide whether the beating and subsequent forced confession is grounds for a hearing that could ultimately result in Wrice being set free after serving nearly 30 years of a 100-year sentence. His supporters say […]
Posted inNews
City seeking minority police recruits
The Springfield Police Department hopes to hire new patrol officers in the coming months, with minorities to comprise a quarter of the new hires. On Aug. 4, Mayor Michael Houston announced the city would begin in September the recruitment process for new police hires for the first time in two years. Houston also took a […]
Posted inNews
Minorities disproportionately stopped and searched
A study of traffic stop data released by the Illinois Department of Transportation shows minority drivers in Illinois and in Springfield are more likely than white drivers to be stopped and searched by police. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union is pushing the federal government to investigate racial bias in traffic stop searches. The IDOT […]
