Newsroom

The Springfield Park District has been seeing a rash of vandalism at Washington Park over the past few weeks.

Derek Harms, executive director of the park district, said Tuesday that someone damaged the bathroom near the pavilion and broke into the tennis pro shop, though nothing was taken.

Construction equipment also has been broken into, and graffiti was spray-painted near the entrance to the park.

 Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week
 January 19, 2017

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

Not all criminal acts involve shootings, robberies, or burglaries yet all criminal acts have an effect on the community. In late December there were two break-ins to buildings at Washington Park and the culprits inflicted over $5000 worth of damage to park property. This felony was followed up a few nights later by further acts of vandalism to park property and again, costly damage resulted. The perpetrators were likely juveniles who falsely reasoned that since nobody was injured, there was no harm. The fact is, however,  there is significant harm to the very society we live in when we can’t have public parks that are safe from vandalism and destruction.

Crime Stoppers Report of the Week

 January 12, 2017

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

Crime Stoppers is a not-for-profit, 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to assisting police by paying rewards for information about criminals and criminal activity. We want to help make our communities safer; and last year we had many successes which were covered in news stories throughout the year. We’ve even initiated special programs to help identify and apprehend those involved in gun violence, such as the special reward for information leading to the arrest of the person -or persons- involved in the homicide of young Alaysia Bennett.

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

In recent years there has been a gradual, but steady increase in gun violence in our country and the loss of life continues to grow. On December 20th 19 year old Alaysia Bennett was killed when a barrage of bullets was fired into a vehicle occupied by her and four other persons, one of them a 3 year old baby. The senseless end of this young girl’s life, a girl who had a bright future ahead of her, brings focus on the dangerous state of affairs we are faced with in the world today- not to mention the near miss of an even greater unimaginable tragedy that could have taken place on that night.
 

Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week
 December 29, 2016

Officer Mike Badger, Crime Stoppers Coordinator for Sangamon and Menard counties.

Crime Stoppers thanks all of you in Sangamon and Menard Counties for your ongoing support of our program as we close out a  successful year. There was a dramatic increase in the number of tips from the public in 2016 and as a result, we saw a 19% increase in arrests from the previous year. In total there were over 100 arrests directly attributed to Crime Stopper tips leading the Board of Directors of Crime Stoppers to approve over $30,000 in rewards to anonymous tipsters. As a further testament to people’s desire to get involved and help stop criminal activity in the area, there were over two dozen tipsters who did not want a reward even though the information they gave us resulted in an arrest.