Email Message from 16th District Commander David R. McNaughton

24 May 2011

Dear Fellow 16th District Residents,

This past weekend finally brought us good weather.  It also brought numerous disturbances with teens at our neighborhood parks and school playgrounds.  Most of these calls and on view disturbances were very minor in nature.  One new phenomenon is the unusually large number of teens that gather at one time.  Texting allows our teens to instantaneously announce the new location to hang out, and what follows are large numbers of teens gathering.  This in turn causes alarm to the residents who live near these parks and playgrounds.

Responding officers have found some alcohol near the locations where the teens are gathering and some of the calls for service suggest that alcohol may be involved.  Three calls over the weekend were particularly disturbing;  all were near St. Thecla church and School at 6323 N. Newcastle.  One call was of teenagers urinating against the church wall, and there were two incidents of the newspaper recycling bins being set afire.  Also, some neighbors are directly confronting the unruly teens.

To avoid future incidents, the 16th District will be patrolling the problematic locations, and will be taking enforcement action.  If you are the parent, friend or neighbor of a teen, please remind them of the importance of respecting the peace of our community, the dangers of alcohol and their responsibility of being good citizens.

We encourage our teenage citizens to continue to visit our neighborhood parks and school playgrounds; we ask them to act in a responsible and respectful manner.

Sincerely,
David R. McNaughton
District Commander
16th District

(copied from an email blast sent 5/24/2011)