Photo courtesy of EveryBlock
 
Adrian Holovaty, a journalist and computer programmer from Chicago, started up chicagocrime.org in 2005. If you’re in the with the tech- or crime-obsessed crowd, you’ve probably seen this site– or stared at it for hours on end. Give or take a few hours.
 
You probably also know that Holovaty has recently expanded his site into the brand new web resource EveryBlock, a hub for neighborhood news from Chicago to New York to San Francisco.
 
Holovaty has created Web applications for washingtonpost.com, Lawrence.come and LJWorld.com. So, as you can imagine, he’s a pretty busy guy. But today, this gypsy-guitar playing programmer took a couple of minutes to answer a few questions for Watching the Detectives. Take a look.
 
WTD: Tell me a little bit about chicagocrime.org. Why did you start it? How did you start it?
What kind of response have you gotten from it?
 
AH: I started chicagocrime.org for the fun of it, in May 2005. I’d found the Chicago Police Department’s Citizen ICAM site and was blown away by the amount of quality crime data — but I found myself wanting to interact with it in more of a “browse” fashion than a “search” fashion. At the same time, I was part of the early community that was working to figure out how to embed Google Maps on our own sites, so the project was an excuse for me to use mapping on a Web site.
 
The response was overwhelmingly positive, both from residents/users of the site and people outside of Chicago who saw it as an innovative project. It inspired more than a dozen similar sites in other cities around the world, it was named by the New York Times Magazine as one of the year’s best ideas, and it made some waves in the journalism industry, where it was seen as an interesting new form of journalism.
 
WTD: Why did you decide to switch over to EveryBlock?
 
AH: In spring 2007, I received a two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to start an experiment with address-specific news — essentially, to create the successor to chicagocrime.org, with more data than just crime and more cities than just Chicago. Thanks to the grant, I have the luxury of working on this project full time, whereas chicagocrime.org was always a side project.
 
It didn’t make much sense to operate both sites, given that EveryBlock provides Chicago crime data too, so I redirected chicagocrime.org to the appropriate EveryBlock pages a couple of weeks ago.
 
WTD: Can you tell me a little about EveryBlock?
 
AH: The concept is, it’s a newspaper for your block. We pull together as much local news we can find — public records, mainstream media reports, plus Webby stuff like Flickr photos — and let you filter it geographically, at an extremely granular level. Every block in Chicago gets its own page, e.g.,
http://chicago.everyblock.com/streets/addison-st/1050-1098w/ .
 
More information is on our “about” page.
 
WTD: What kind of response have you gotten from the changeover?
 
AH: It’s been mostly positive, but any redesign causes its share of anxiety and confusion. People have said they like the wealth of additional data we offer, along with the fact that we now offer e-mail alerts. The main criticism has been that we no longer have a way of finding *only* the crimes on a given block, as we now use a small search radius around each block. But we’re working on fixing that.
 
WTD: Has your site every helped anyone to stop or prevent a crime, or to catch a criminal?
 
AH: I have no way of knowing that for sure, but I think increasing
information and awareness about neighborhood crime has the effect of making a community a bit more safe. What I hear anecdotally is that people use the site to keep tabs on crime in their neighborhood and, in some cases, create reports to take to aldermen to point out specific trends.
 
WTD: Why crime?
 
AH: Because the data was available.
 
WTD: How do you think the advent of the Internet has affected crime reporting/fighting? Does it promote amateur crimefighters? Or merely provide an outlet for armchair sleuths?
 
AH: I think tools like chicagocrime.org and EveryBlock get people more interested in their neighborhoods, which has a positive effect.
 
WTD: Was Django named after Django Reinhardt?
 
AH: Yes. I’m a big Django Reinhardt fan and even attempt to play that
style of music.

Photo by Kevin Lawver
 
I propose a road trip, and I propose it ASAP. The Dick Tracy museum in Woodstock is closing in June.
 
The Chester Gould-Dick Tracy Museum opened in 1991, and was pretty popular for a while. But lately low attendance is driving the landmark into the ground.
 
So, what I want to know is: What’s going to happen to the Crimestoppers?!
 
The Crimestoppers were first introduced in 1947 in the Dick Tracy comic strip, penned by Chester Gould. Junior, Dick Tracy’s adopted son, started the group in order to help kids stay on the right path by becoming involved in detective work. Awesome.
 
During the late 90s, back in the real world, Woodstock Police Chief Joe Marvin kicked off the “Crimestoppers Police Academy.” Due to scheduling and other issues, the program failed, but in 2000, the Museum started working on the “Crimestoppers Youth Program,” which ran for eight, one-hour weekly sessions. Kids from grades three through five learned all about crime, safety and—of course—identity theft. They even got a t-shirt and a badge. I so wish I was in fifth grade again.
 
The museum’s Web site says that the Crimestoppers Youth Program was to be implemented in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago in April 2003, but the news stops there. What happened to the program? I found an organization called Crime Stoppers on the CPD Web site. Is this the same organization? Does anyone know? It seems almost impossible to find out.
 
Either way, the Crime Stoppers mentioned on the CPD page are currently partnering with CAPS and the CPD to continue the search for the Tinley Park killer.
 
Maybe, if we’re lucky, we can get Dick Tracy on the case– before his museum hits the sheets for the big sleep.

My Tribune alert just informed me that Will County officials have announced that an autopsy conducted in November found that Drew Peterson’s third wife’s death with a homicide.
 
That was a mouthful.
 
In case you didn’t get all that: Kathleen Savio was Drew Peterson’s third wife. She was exhumed in November. An autopsy was conducted. Will County officials just announced the results of that autopsy. The results were that her death was not accidental; it was a homicide.
 
So, what does this mean for the Drew Peterson case, which has been pretty dormant for the last month or so? What do you think readers?

Radar magazine recently posted a pretty interesting article on Stephen Kazmierczak, the NIU shooter. Apparently, they found a comment on a music message board in which someone said he was the shooter’s former co-worker at Pirates Cove Children’s Theme Park.
 
The poster goes on to make some pretty wild claims.
 
Then, a commenter going by the same alias as the poster– sinicalypse– responded to the post. Hm, real lead or false ramblings? Take a look at Radar’s site and let me know.

Photo by The Chicago Tribune, courtesy of Maurice Possley
 
Maurice Possley works as a criminal justice reporter for the Chicago Tribune. With around 36 years of reporting under his proverbial belt, Possley has seen a lot—the good, the bad and the wrongfully accused.
 
This week, Possley took a few minutes to talk to Watching the Detectives about his career as a crime writer—past and present.
 
Take a listen: Talking with Maurice Possley
 
Or just read the transcript below:

Photo by radiospike photography

 
WTD: How did you start out covering investigative criminal justice?
 
MP: In 1997, I was covering the “26th and Cal” criminal courts building, as well as doing some national trial reporting—the Timothy McVeigh trial, for instance, and the Unabomber case—when he pleaded guilty. And there was another reporter at the paper by the name of Ken Armstrong who had proposed a project on prosecutorial misconduct, and I was asked to team up with him because of my experience covering the courts system. And it ultimately lead to a five-part series on prosecutorial misconduct that was published in January of 1999. And that… sort of… that series begat other series and other stories, projects came out of that.
 
WTD: Have you heard back from any of the people that you’ve written about?
 
MP: There’s a fellow by the name of Ken Berrywho is now a paralegal at a law firm that I wrote about. And he is working for people you know that are—he believes are wrongfully imprisoned. Really turned his life around. Got some awards for his work, and you know, he was a guy who was wrongfully convicted and now is, you know, doing really terrific things. And so we chat occasionally about the cases that he’s working on, or things that are happening in his life.
 
WTD: And you wrote most recently about Alton Logan?
 
MP: That was a story a few weeks ago.
 
WTD: Do you write a lot of stories like that? Or do you find that this [wrongful imprisonment] is common occurrence? I know that we have the Innocence Project at Northwestern to try to prevent that from happening.
 
MP: Well, are you talking about the suggestion that someone is in prison who is innocent?
 
WTD: Mm-hm.
 
MP: I mean, we’ve seen a number of those cases in Illinois. I mean, we’ve seen them nationally—the DNA exonerations in this country are over 250 and there have been a number of people who have been released from Death Row. That’s over a hundred. So, Illinois has a fair share of those. So, if you say… I don’t think… I don’t know how to characterize it when you hear… when someone says, ‘How often does it happen?’ You know, how many times is too many? Some would argue that one time is too many. So, we see it. In terms of the Alton Logan case, the peculiar facts of that case—in terms of the lawyers who kept something secret for a quarter of a century—I’ve never run across something like that.
 
WTD: Do you think that they acted rightly? I mean, I guess it was within the law to not reveal the truth.
 
MP: Well, it’s not for me to decide whether they acted rightly. They certainly believe that they did and that they followed their ethical… what the ethics of their profession required. Some people have taken issue with that. I’m not sure that the ones who take issue are taking issue because… they think that the ethical rules are wrong, or whether they [the lawyers] should have ignored them. There’s a lot of interesting questions that arise out of a story like this.
 
WTD: And how do you yourself deal with writing about such horrible things on such a frequent basis?
 
MP: Sometimes it helps to take a break and go write about something else, whether it’s fly-fishing in Montana or good barbecue in Texas, or something that’s different. Sometimes you just sort of have to go off, have a good cry and start all over.
 
The Maurice Possley Reading List
 
“Acquitted ex-cop taking next step: Push is for pardon to clear his name”:
A piece about Ken Berry
 
The Brown’s Chicken Massacre:
Buy it here on the Tribune’s Web site
 
“Inmate’s freedom may hinge on secret kept for 26 years”:
A piece about Alton Logan

 
Photo by Kenn Christ
 
 
 
In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it’s a sport. In Chicago not only your vote counts, but all kinds of other votes–kids, dead folks, and so on.
 
~Dick Gregory, Dick Gregory’s Political Primer, 1972
 
Just something to mull over before you slap that “I Voted Today!” sticker on your parka.

Hey all. So, I’ve been blogging at you for a while now, and I want to know what you think. Likes, dislikes, rants, raves? I want to hear them. Post below and let me know.

My LORD! The Drew Peterson case has marched even further into the Twilight Zone. Today, MSNBC reported that when Peterson appeared on WJMK-FM with Chicago radio host Steve Dahl, the ex-cop agreed to come back next Thursday and participate in “Win a Date with Drew Peterson.”
 
WJMK-FM general manager, Peter Bowen, said that “Win a Date” is out of the question—that Peterson and Brodsky asked the station to arrange the match game and that it was by no means the station’s idea. Brodsky begs to differ, crediting Dahl with the kitschy concept.
 
OK.
 
Let’s just take a minute to let this idea sink in: a dating show where the prize is a man with a.) Several ex-wives, b.) One mysteriously deceased ex-wife, c.) One missing current wife, d.) Do I really need to go on?
 
So… Who cares whose idea this was? What I want to know is why this idea was even introduced into the ether in the first place.
 
Just imagine Peterson on other popular dating shows:
 
NEXT:
Ever wish you could bail in the middle of a bad date? Well, NEXT is the MTV show that lets you do just that. We’ll set you up on 5 dates. The minute you get annoyed, angry or just plain bored, simply kick ‘em to the curb by saying “NEXT”, and start over with someone new.

 
Sounds like business as usual for Peterson.
 
Room Raiders:
The show about raiding closets and breaking hearts. This afternoon game show will let contestants decide who to date, based solely on the contents of their bedroom. Watch as one person is sent on a search mission in the bedrooms of three unsuspecting strangers who have no idea that someone will be searching through their things. Without a word of warning, armed with the right tools for the ultimate search (rubber gloves and tweezers, naturally) our searchers are raiding the rooms of three unsuspecting people who will have no time to prepare for the break-in.
 
He should be used to this by now.
 
Parental Control:
On each episode of Parental Control, one set of parents sends their pride and joy on two handpicked blind dates. Their hope? That one of the dates will catch their offspring’s eye, thus leading them to dump their current companion. The twist? Mom and dad will be watching every minute of each date while sitting side by side with their child’s current partner. Yup, they’ll all be on the couch like one big, uncomfortable family!
 
Actually, forget this one. He doesn’t stand a chance.

Lifetime must be lusting after the rights to Stacy Peterson’s story after today’s development. According to the Chicago Sun-Times , Drew Peterson and his attorney, Joel Brodsky, announced that Stacy Peterson received a lusty text message last September. The text read: You my love are the hottest b —- in the world. Thanks for ridding [sic] me like a bucking bronco last night.

Ok, this case has basically degenerated into a media circus, a carnival of horrors, a theme park for the deranged. Frankly, it’s just become plain odd. Allow me to demonstrate:

Exhibit A: Drew Peterson

If you’ve been following this case at all, you’ve most likely noticed that Drew Peterson is not your average Joe. Peterson has been portrayed as a kind of Henry VIII—a playboy with a plethora of ex-wives—one who mysteriously died. But the oddest thing about Peterson is not how he has been portrayed, but how much he has been portrayed. This media-hating man found his way onto TV screens across the nation last year, propelling the story into the public eye.

Exhibit B: The Amazing Kreskin

This 72-year-old Mentalist has decided to join the search for the missing woman. Need I say more?

Exhibit C: Joel Brodsky

Talk about stealing the show. The lawyer isn’t supposed to have a bigger criminal record than the suspect. Here’s the rundown of Brodsky’s past, according to the Chicago Tribune:

1. He and his wife divorced in 1997, and he allegedly threatened her life. No charges were filed.
2. A SWAT team arrived at Brodsky’s home in 2002 following a report that he was threatening to kill himself while toting a shotgun. No charges were filed.
3. In 2004, the lawyer took $23,000 from a client’s account using a fake signature. Although he explained that he had taken the money to save it from the state, Brodsky was banned from law for three months.

Well, I guess he doesn’t have a literal criminal record, but he’s still a pretty unconventional lawyer. But unconventional be damned according to Peterson– he’s a fan. “He kind of clicks with my personality,” Peterson told the Trib.

Whatever floats your boat Drew.

When trolling the Internet for information on crime, you have to turn to both official police sources and the media. Each will give you a different look at the state of affairs in Chicago today.

Here’s a few informational sites from both arenas.

Official Sites

Police

The Chicago Police Department CLEARpath site

The Chicago Police Department, City of Chicago

Sex Offender Database

Chicago Police Department Homicide Record Index, 1870–1930

Other Law Enforcement Agencies

The FBI

The CIA

City Government

The City of Chicago Web site

Illinois State Senate Republicans

Illinois State Senate Democrats

Illinois General Assembly

Find Your Alderman

Media Sites

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Sun-Times

ABC 7 Chicago

NBC 5 Chicago

CBS 2 Chicago

MyFox Chicago

Chicago Defender

Chicago Reader

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin

Blogs

Citizen Blogs

Bonnie’s Blog of Crime

Coalition of Crime Bloggers

Crime Scene Blog

The Trenchcoat Chronicles

The Outfit: A Collective of Chicago Crime Writers

The Chicago Syndicate

Police Blogs

Chicago Police Department Weblog

Second City Cop

BurbCopsChicago

Second City Sarge