Police chases up in Nashville

Ian Demsky of The (Nashville) Tennessean used local police data to show that "a record number of police pursuits zipped through Nashville streets last year, even as beefed-up safety measures caused officers to cancel more of the dangerous car chases than ever before." A third of the 269 police chases in 2004 led to some kind of property damage. "While officers and supervisors called off 67 pursuits last year - almost twice as many as they did in 2003 - the number of chases for minor traffic violations, nonviolent crimes and stolen vehicles rose from 153 to 175."

Karen E. Crummy of The Denver Post analyzed county data to find that "most of the inmates crammed into the Denver County Jail are accused of robbery, burglary, selling drugs and even violent assaults. Relatively few of them are the drunken drivers and petty drug users whom people often associate with county jail." Local residents will vote in May on building a new jail.

Chris Fusco and Lori Rackl of the Chicago Sun-Times used state documents to show that sixty-one criminals on parole from the state's prison system are living in 37 nursing homes alongside vulnerable people who have virtually no way of knowing they're there. "The Sun-Times found an example of this in southwest suburban Bridgeview at Midway Neurological & Rehab Center, formerly called Century Village. Among the 404-bed facility's residents is Louis White, 35, a convicted second-degree murderer who also was convicted of sexually abusing a girl in 1999." The story provides a graphic detailing the number of offenders in each facility, age ranges of the offenders and the types of offenses the parolees committed.

CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin reports on police
officers who use steriods. Griffin reports this is a growing problem
across the country as police feel they need to bulk up to gain an advantage
over criminals. In an interview with Al Geoit, a former officer in rural
Michigan who was fired for poor job performance, which he attributes to his
use of steroids. "Far from alone, Al Geoit is one of hundreds of police
officers across the country who have been fired or sent to jail for illegal
steroid use. CNN has documented cases in 10 different states where police
officers were illegally using the artificial hormones." Griffin also talked
to Norman, Okla., Police Chief Phil Cotten, who "fired four of his officers
when he learned they, too, were on steroids." (Editor's Note: You'll need
to search the transcript on this Web
page for "Drew Griffin" to find the story.)

David Olinger and Jeffrey A. Roberts of The Denver Post examined reports of violent incidents in Colorado schools, finding that "disclosures of school violence vary wildly from one district to another. Some schools report every punch thrown on the playground. Others did not include assaults that police classified as felonies." The state requires districts to report certain incidents, but the guidelines lead some officials to report only those that cause severe injuries. "How accountable are the accountability reports? To accept their reliability, you must believe that in the last school year: Thirteen Colorado grade schools had more assaults and fights than any high school in Denver. A rural high school in Rifle witnessed more assaults than 25 high schools in Denver and Aurora. The most violent school in Colorado is a middle school in the suburban community of Fountain." A graphic shows some of the incidents that didn't make the state's report.

Ofelia Casillas of the Chicago Tribune investigated juvenile sex offenders in schools, specifically looking into school knowledge of the sex offender(s) in their school. They found that "some principals were not told that young sex offenders had enrolled in their schools, because the state system designed to notify them is mired in confusion." They found more disturbing data when looking into what types of crimes the juvenile sex offenders had committed. "Of the juveniles registered, 41 percent were found guilty of aggravated or criminal sexual assault, and 33 percent committed aggravated criminal sexual abuse"

Curtis Johnson of The (Huntingdon) Herald-Dispatch used Cabell County court and jail records to show that ."inmates facing felony charges, most of whom were awaiting trial, accounted for 62 percent of the month's bill. That's important, because if convicted, the state takes over the cost of their imprisonment." The records show that "reducing the jail bill would require a dramatic shift toward speedier trials along with pre-trial and sentencing alternatives."

Leon Alligood of The Tennessean reviewed state data to report on overcrowding in county jails. He found that "a total of 26 of the 129 jails statewide have been 'decertified'," because of varying reasons, ranging from unhealthy living conditions, to out-dated facilities. Of the 26 jails that were decertified, the average age of the facilities was 46.5 years old. The story also includes links to sidebars including, few penalties for not meeting standards for jails, some of the state's basic rules for jail standards and information on certified jails that have overcrowding in their detention facilities.

Nathan Gorenstein, Barbara Boyer and Rose Ciotta of the Philadelphia Inquirer summarized shootings in the city last year: "On average, more than four people a day were struck by bullets. About one in six died. On one day alone - Oct. 22 - 19 people were shot, one fatally. It's a toll of injury and death that falls most heavily on the same few neighborhoods year after year: North Philadelphia. West Philadelphia north of Market Street. The southwestern edge of South Philadelphia." During the past four years, half of all shooting victims were under 25, and most of those were African American males. An interactive graphic displaying shooting victims per square mile is included.

Colleen Krantz of The Des Moines Register and Janet Rorholm of The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette report that a newspaper audit of public records in Iowa shows that "law enforcement agencies in Iowa provided greater access to their public documents during a recent investigation by Iowa newspapers than the agencies did five years ago, yet police departments and sheriff offices still violated the law by withholding records about a third of the time." City clerks and county government agencies provided better access to records this time, according to the audit, which was assisted by Drake University journalism students. A searchable database of results is available.