Posts tagged law enforcement
#CU cops: Serial bank robber is busted
Mar 15th
The suspect who law enforcement officials believe is the so-called “Face Off Bandit” was arrested this afternoon as he was leaving a Wal-mart store in Thornton. The “Face Off Bandit” is believed to be responsible for six bank robberies in four jurisdictions, including Boulder, Golden, Thornton and Louisville.
Mark Steven Edwards (DOB 9/19/1961) faces three felony Robbery charges in connection with the Boulder bank robberies. Forensic evidence linked him to the robberies, and he was arrested on a Boulder Police Department warrant.
In Boulder, the first robbery occurred on Dec. 16, 2011 at Great Western Bank, located at 1900 9th St.
The second robbery took place at First Bank, located at 4770 Baseline, on Jan. 19, 2012.
Chase Bank, located at 603 S. Broadway, was robbed on Feb. 15, 2012.
The “Face Off Bandit” is also suspected of robbing a Wells Fargo Bank in Golden, Key Bank in Thornton and First National Bank in Louisville. These cases are still under investigation by police agencies in those jurisdictions.
In each of the Boulder robberies, the suspect entered the bank and walked directly to the teller, demanding money. Tellers complied with the suspect’s demand. No one was hurt.
The suspect fled on foot after each robbery, and police found discarded beards and other items believed to belong to the suspect.
Edwards is in custody at the Boulder County Jail. His bond has been set at $100,000.
The case numbers are: 11-16250, 12-858 and 12-2138.
The Boulder Police Department is grateful for the assistance that other law enforcement agencies provided during the investigations. Those agencies include: FBI-Denver, the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, the Louisville Police Department, the Thornton Police Department, the Golden Police Department and the Adams County Sheriff’s Department SWAT Team, which executed a search warrant in unincorporated Adams County on behalf of the Boulder Police Department.
Anyone with information about these robberies is asked to contact Detective Heather Frey at 303-441-3369. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website at www.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.
CU expert: Preventing school violence is everybody’s job
Feb 29th
University of Colorado expert says
The tragic school shooting that occurred Feb. 27 at a suburban Cleveland high school is another reminder that communities can and must take action to prevent school violence, according to Delbert Elliott, a nationally renowned authority on school safety and juvenile violence at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“A key prevention strategy is good surveillance and good intelligence,” said Elliott, founding director of the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. “We need to enlist our students, our teachers and our adults in the community to help us and ask them to notify the police or the sheriff if they see something unusual or have heard that something is about to happen.”
In 80 percent of the school shootings examined by the U.S. Secret Service, someone knew the event was going to take place, Elliott said. “Nationally, we know right now of a dozen or more events for which we got a tip and were able to intervene early so the planned event actually never took place, which is, I think, our very, very best security.” Some of these plans were on the same level of violence as the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, he said.
In Colorado, there’s a toll-free Safe2Tell reporting system for students and others to call in anonymous tips about safety concerns, the result of collaboration between the CU-Boulder center and the Colorado Attorney General’s office. All tips are treated seriously, and when combined with other sources of information, often result in some kind of intervention. Since 2004, Safe2Tell has received almost 10,000 calls.
From 2004 through 2010, follow-up data indicate that 83 percent of all Safe2Tell incidents resulted in a positive intervention or action. These tips resulted in 415 formal investigations, 359 counseling referrals, 298 prevention/intervention plans, 324 potential suicide interventions, 312 school disciplinary actions, 74 arrests and 28 prevented school attacks.
“An equally critical key to security is to create a welcoming environment in which all students feel that they’re respected, that the rules are applied uniformly to all students, and students feel safe,” Elliott said. “When students feel that some children can get away with bad behavior and others can’t, and there’s bullying going on, that’s when kids feel like they have to take a weapon to school to protect themselves.”
After Columbine raised awareness of the need to prepare for school crises, school safety has improved nationally, Elliott said. In Colorado, the Legislature changed the law to allow schools, law enforcement and social services agencies to legally share information and every school in the state is now required to have a bullying prevention plan.
Any parent in the state can now go into their child’s school and ask to see what the bullying prevention plan is for that school and make sure that the school is following through with it, he said.
Every school, even those in rural areas, needs an “all-hazards” approach to crises that works for a variety of threats: fires, natural hazards, terrorist attacks, chemical spills, a shooter in the building or a hostage takeover, Elliott said. But most schools haven’t practiced these plans with a full response by police, SWAT, fire, victims’ services, mental health services and ambulances — all coordinated by a single command post.
As the responses to both Columbine and Sept. 11 showed, such drills are important because they reveal communications and other crucial response issues between agencies, he said. Such practices could be held on weekends without students being present, he noted.
Elliott also is concerned when school officials tell him that school safety is a lower priority for them than academic performance, that there is no space in their curriculum for an anti-bullying program.
“These two things should not be in competition with each other,” he said. “If you’ve got a problem with students feeling unsafe at school, you’re not going to improve academic performance because school safety is a necessary precondition for students to be able to concentrate and even to be willing to come to school.
“We argue that being safe at school and improving academic performance go hand in hand.”
Six percent of schoolchildren reported that they had not come to school on occasion because they were afraid of being threatened or assaulted according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control survey, Elliott said.
“Nevertheless, students are more likely to be a victim of violence away from school than at school by a huge margin,” said Elliott, who was the senior scientific editor of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence issued in 2001.
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence is part of the CU-Boulder Institute of Behavioral Science. For more information about the center visithttp://www.colorado.edu/cspv/.
More credit card thefts
Feb 29th
Police in Boulder are looking for one male and two female suspects who investigators believe are involved in a wallet theft that took place in Whole Foods Market, located at 2905 Pearl St., on Feb. 9.
A female victim was shopping in the store at 10:30 a.m. and left her purse unattended in her cart while she shopped. She realized her wallet was missing from her purse when she tried to check out and pay for her items around 11:25 a.m.
The victim began calling her credit card companies to cancel her cards, but they had already been used for transactions at various stores in Boulder. Thousands of dollars worth of mostly computer items and gift cards were charged to the credit cards before the victim could cancel them.
Here are descriptions of the suspects:
Female #1:
- Hispanic
- 5’5” to 5’6” tall
- 130 pounds
- Long black, waist-level hair
- Dark brown eyes
- Wearing black clothes and high-heeled black boots
- Described by clerk as “stylish”
Female #2:
- Hispanic
- Approximately 40 years old
- 5’3” to 5’4” tall
- 140 pounds
- Black hair
- Light brown eyes
- Wearing a tan beanie-style cap, a tan puffy jacket & blue jeans
Male:
- Hispanic
- Wearing a brown and black leather jacket
- No further information is available, but photo is attached
The case number is 12-1836.
The Boulder Police Department would like to offer some tips for safe shopping:
- Keep your purse in your hands or on your shoulder; never leave it unattended because criminals know your attention will be divided while shopping.
- Keep your cell phone in your pocket.
- Pre-program phone numbers for your banks and all your credit card companies into your phone.
- Alert store security AND call law enforcement immediately if you discover you have been a victim of a theft.
- Call each financial institution immediately after becoming aware of the theft. Criminals know they have a small window of opportunity to use your credit cards before they are flagged as stolen.
- Authorize financial institutions to relase any illegal transaction details to law enforcement for the investigation.
- Don’t keep your Social Security card or any password information in your wallet.
Police are asking the public for help in identifying the suspect in the attached photo. The lead investigator in this case is Detective Scott Morris, and he can be reached at 303-441-3482. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website atwww.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.