Police report: trustees press chief over rising auto thefts; suspect described as juvenile

During the board’s review of the police report, trustees questioned a discrepancy between tables in the packet and recent neighborhood incidents and asked for clarification on year-to-date auto-theft figures.

"So we've had 5 January, February, and March," one trustee said while referencing the packet. The police chief acknowledged the discrepancy in the packet tables and confirmed there had been recent auto-theft activity. The chief said the main suspect in several cases has been arrested multiple times in different jurisdictions and noted the suspect is a juvenile, which the chief said affects prosecution and detention options: "The main suspect has been arrested 3 times... it's a juvenile."

Trustees asked how the person continued offending if arrests had been made; the chief attributed part of the problem to the criminal-justice system and the way courts handle juveniles across jurisdictions. Trustees asked staff and the chief to follow up on numbers and provide corrected statistics in future reports.