Monthly Archives: April 2017

Officials say crime is under control despite the rapid growth to Pooler and they intend to keep it that way.

Its been peacefully quiet in Pooler, said Pooler Police Chief Mark Revenew last week.

But there are still some concerns in the west Chatham city. Nestled between Interstate 95 and Interstate 16, the city has become a popular stop for commuters and transient guests. Some of those transient guests choose to make their stay in Pooler a permanent one, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And more people inside the city limits spurs an opportunity for criminal activity. The majority of crimes in Pooler have included prostitution and child victimization, speeding, driving under the influence and other traffic violations.

When you look at Pooler, we get 70,000 cars a day going down I-95, and we get 30,000 a day going down 16, Revenew said. We have 11,000 Gulfstream workers pass through for lunch. Our transient population is huge.

Growth and centralization

In 2010, about 19,000 people called Pooler home, according to the U.S Census Bureau. By 2015, the citys population increased 21.1 percent to 23,133 residents.

Its a wave of rapid growth that brought a slew of new hotels, restaurants, retail shops, automobile dealerships and medical facilities and spurred a new 51,500-square-foot city hall building and matching municipal complex.

Look at how the city of Pooler and how its grown we needed (the city hall) to grow, Mayor Mike Lamb said in a March 31 Savannah Morning News article. We needed to do something, not just for a quick fix but for the next 50, 100 years.

City officials and other west Chatham dignitaries broke ground on the facility in July 2015. And about two years later, the new three-story city hall and adjoining municipal courtroom was completed, outfitted with offices for city and a new location for the city police department staffed with about 50 officers.

The police departments headquarters had been located in shopping centers for three decades. But with the city rapidly growing, it was time for things to change, Revenew said.

A lot of people dont realize that it was strategically decided to put us central to the city (here at the new city hall), he said. We have new Pooler with the Parkway, semi-new Pooler with the Pine Barren area and Old Pooler. So this puts us in a central location. ... Plus it makes us more efficient. If I need something from, say, finance I just walk upstairs. It gives us secured parking and it looks professional. It makes our evidence room that more secure. And its easier for city leaders to come to the department if they need anything. The communication is so much more streamlined.

Pooler Crime

With a large transient population passing in and out of the city, its easy for crime to make its way to Pooler, according to Revenew.

People all flock into Savannah to work and come back home, he said. People come from Effingham and Richmond and even Hardeeville to frequent Pooler. Unfortunately, that means that they come here to commit crimes too. I presented a report a while back and about 70 percent of the arrests we make for shoplifting are people who arent from Pooler.

Among those coming to commit crimes are people engaging in illicit sexual activity. The police department said it made 15 arrests for prostitution between 2015 and 2017, and thats an issue Revenew says his department is tackling aggressively.

The two things we are super aggressive and proactive about is child pornography/victimization and these vice crimes, he said. Because what happens is being our locale on 95 is a lot of these prostitutes travel. Theyll come here for a week but we dont want them staying a day. People still look at it as a victim-less crime But we see the secondary crimes. They dont. They just think its harmless.

The police department often partners with Savannah-Chatham police and other municipality police departments to help combat crime, he said.

We want to hear that we make it uncomfortable for them to commit crimes here.

Previous prostitution busts in the city have also uncovered substances and other items associated with drug use and distribution, and those arrests have been helped by the Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics team. A 2015 bust at the Econo Lodge on U.S. 80 also resulted in human trafficking and weapon possession charges.

The Savannah Morning News made a request for a complete report of violent crime statistics from the Pooler Police Department, but that data was not yet available. The FBIs most recent report from 2014 showed 40 violent crimes and 620 property crimes including burglary, vehicle theft and larceny theft. After 2014, the FBI changed its reporting practices to focus on a metropolitan statistical area report, which is now put out by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Subdivision speeding

But prostitution isnt the only growing crime in Pooler. Theres the issue of drivers going too fast through the city dubbed as one giant subdivision. Tanger Outlets has increased traffic flow, which will also soon be affected at the other end of Pooler Parkway with the building of a new micro-hospital that will serve communities in west Chatham.

We get more complaints that we dont do enough enforcement for speeding than we do too much, Revenew said. People get really aggravated when cars fly through their neighborhood, but we have 100 neighborhoods over 700 streets, so its really difficult to make everybody happy.

And with the recent fatalities on the Interstates in Pooler, slowing drivers down is a priority for Revenew and his officers.

With those 15 fatalities on 16, it is very important to us. We had the five nursing students killed, another five killed in a fiery crash and another five killed in a head-on collision along that three-mile stretch, he said.

... A lot of people think its a victimless crime, but its much more than that. Just a few weeks ago, we stopped a girl doing 107 with marijuana edibles in her car. She admitted she was going to sell them at Orange Crush. But you have to think, we dont know if they are safe, whether she used the right amount of THC, whether they were made in a sterile environment, plus someone going 107 on a highway colliding with grandma whos doing 60 its a disaster.

But Poolers bordering of multiple cities makes for a unique partnership to help address the growing issues, Revenew said.

The city shares limits with Bloomingdale, Garden City and Savannah and the Pooler Police Department frequently calls on its brothers in blue to help across jurisdiction lines.

Back after the crash in 2007, grants dried up and budgets dried up, he said. It pushed us to working together. We have to work together. We have to be more efficient. We dont have the resources we had 10 years ago and that made us come the table and say How can we help each other? and so by sharing our resources we complement each other.

Read the original here:

'Streamlined' operation helps Pooler tackle transient crimes, traffic issues - Savannah Morning News

Tre Quane Jenkins and Antonio Jaray Moore (Courtesy PPB)

PORTLAND, Ore. Portland Police and the FBI have reunited a 16-year-old sex trafficking victim with her family, and arrested two men for prostitution.

The investigation started several weeks ago, when officers found the victim inside a house in the 8500 block of SE Steele Street. Thursday, she was removed from the home and reunited with her family. Three other people were found at the house and they refused to come out for some time.

Eventually, 22-year-old Tre Quane Jenkins and 20-year-old Antonio Jaray Moore were arrested for compelling prostitution. The third person was released. Police found a firearm inside the house.

If you have any information, call Portland Police.

From Portland Police:

Sex trafficking and prostitution are not victimless crimes. Victims of sex trafficking and prostitution are forced, coerced, and manipulated into this lifestyle against their will. They are forced to suffer through physical, sexual, and mental abuse. The Portland Police Bureau, in conjunction with other Federal and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to deterring prostitution and sex trafficking activities.

The Bureau also works with community organizations like Lifeworks NW to help sex trafficking victims: https://www.bja.gov/programs/supporting-victims-of-sex-trafficking-in-Portland.html

If you know or think that someone may be involved in trafficking or is being exploited, please contact the Portland Police Bureau's Sex Trafficking Unit at 503-255-0118, the Sexual Assault Resource Center hotline 1-800-640-5311; or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1-800-843-5678 or via the Cyber Tipline: http://www.missingkids.org/CyberTiipline

Crime Stoppers of Oregon offers cash rewards for information, reported to Crime Stoppers, that leads to an arrest in any unsolved felony crime and tipsters can remain anonymous.

Information about any unsolved homicide is eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,500. Information about any other unsolved felony crime is eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

Information learned from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube should be shared as these tips may lead to the identification of a suspect or suspects. Links can be shared anonymously through Crime Stoppers.

Submit an anonymous tip:

Text CRIMES (274637) - Type 823HELP, followed by the tip.

Online at http://crimestoppersoforegon.com/submit_online_tip.php

Call 503-823-HELP (4357)

Visit http://www.tipsoft.com to download the TipSubmit app for the iPhone or Droid.

Here is the original post:

16-year-old sex trafficking victim rescued, two men arrested in Ore ... - KOMO News

BELCHERTOWN A Belchertown man has been arrested and charged with possessing child pornography after he allegedly attempted to entice a boy via Facebook Messenger.

Douglas Wallace, 28, of 145 River St., pleaded not guilty in Eastern Hampshire District Court Friday to charges of possessionof child pornography and posinga child in the nude, according to Belchertown Police.

Bail was set at $2,500 with conditions that he have no unsupervised contact with people under 18 and no contact with the alleged victim or witnesses, according to theNorthwestern district attorney's office.

A lot of people think these are victimless crimes because its just a photo of a kid somewhere in the U.S., but all of these photographs are real children and they are somebodys children, said Belchertown Detective John Raymer Jr.

Police began investigating Wallace in March after he allegedly was attempting to entice a child over Facebook Messenger to send unclothed pictures of himself to Wallace, police said in a news release.

On March 29, police seized several electronic devices from Wallaces home and found numerous images of child pornography on his cellphone, police said.

Raymer said the case was brought to the attention of Belchertown Police by theNorth Brookfield Police Department after the childs father reported the incident.

A total of five items were seized by police, including three cellphones, a computer anda leather case with DVDs, Raymer said.

So far, all of the photographs weve located were on his iPhone6, Raymer said.

When the warrant was served in March, Raymer said Wallacecame in to give a voluntary statement to police. Upon his arrest Thursday, Raymer said Wallace did not speak with police.

Further charges may be filedbased on review of the51,000photos on the computer police seized, according to Raymer.

The photos would be submitted to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for identification purposes, Raymer said.

We investigate these kind of cases to the utmost professionalism and take it very seriously, Raymer said.

Belchertown Police was assisted by the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit, the Northwestern District Anti-Crime Task Force and the Northwestern district attorneys office child abuse unit.

Wallace is due back in court on May 26.

Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.

Read more from the original source:

Belchertown man faces child porn charges - Daily Hampshire Gazette - GazetteNET

Being Libertarian

The Lowdown on Liberty: Intellectual Property, Border Security, and Criminal Rights Being Libertarian Also, allowing them to own guns would cut down on many crimes libertarians always claim to despise; victimless crimes. All the felons who only wanted one in their home to protect their family no longer risk being thrown back into prison simply for ...

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The Lowdown on Liberty: Intellectual Property, Border Security, and Criminal Rights - Being Libertarian