I have been seeing a lot of stories around the country in recent weeks about the rise in car thefts by juveniles.
Washington D.C. has been the focal point of a good bit of the coverage. In an editorial published Thursday, the Washington Post reported that "arrests of juveniles for unauthorized use of vehicles are up 10 percent in 2004 over the previous year."
A few of the stories and reference sites I have looked over say car thefts generally increase in the summer, when kids are out of school. In Texas, for example, July is listed by a county government website as the hottest month for car thefts.
Here in my town, St. Petersburg, Fla., the St. Petersburg Times says:
This scene is becoming increasingly common as St. Petersburg police deal with a disturbing spike in auto thefts. Between March and June, auto thefts were up by more than a third over the same months last year. In May, vehicle thefts in St. Petersburg rose 81 percent over May 2003.
AP said:
In the past three weeks, three people have been killed in collisions involving vehicles allegedly stolen by minors. Although car thefts in the District of Columbia have declined by 5 percent in 2004, arrests of juveniles for unauthorized use of a vehicle have jumped 10 percent since 2003.
The
St. Louis Post-Dispatch says:
Perhaps nowhere else has the problem become more intractable than in St. Louis, where Gary Alter, 24, of Manchester, was killed Friday in a crash with a stolen SUV carrying five youths, ages 12 to 16. He was at least the ninth person killed under such circumstances in the region in two years.
Frustrated police say joyriders are difficult, often impossible, to catch. Both Washington and St. Louis prohibit officers from chasing a stolen car unless the need to catch its occupants outweighs the risks. In St. Louis, that means the driver of the stolen car must have used or threatened deadly force, or the car's occupants must be wanted for a major felony.
I have to believe that if you looked, you would find a similar story in your city. Police grow frustrated by the problem because it seems that they arrest the same kids over and over. The Post-Dispatch says:
A study commissioned last year by Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey found that 670 of 1,600 juvenile car thieves arrested in 2000-03 had at least one previous arrest for car theft; about 300 had at least two.
The same trend is seen in St. Louis, (St. Louis Police Chief Joe) Mokwa said.
"We're catching the same people over and over," he complained, his voice escalating as he flipped through a stack of reports. "It just, it just drives you crazy. I'm looking at a report from June 24. Here's a guy who has 26 total arrests, 13 convictions, including robbery, forgery and violations of Missouri substance laws. That's an adult."
Why Thieves Love SUVs and Extended Cab Pickups
The St. Petersburg Times story I mentioned (above) says the most popular targets inclu
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The Arizona Republic offered a reason that those models are so popular in some communities.
In the world of smuggling, the SUV and extended-cab pickup reign supreme. The big, sturdy vehicles are perfect for clandestinely transporting large loads of people and drugs from the Mexican border, and the abundance of SUVs and pickups on Arizona roads makes them easy to steal.
Natalie Tripoli, 30, learned that the hard way in February when her 2000 Dodge Durango was stolen from her Scottsdale apartment complex, driven to the Mexican border and jammed full with undocumented immigrants being smuggled into the United States. She isn't alone.
Smuggling, experts believe, is responsible for a significant portion of the 57,668 vehicles reported stolen in 2002, the last year for which full statistics are available.
The AZ Republic story continues:
Smuggling organizations typically pay gangs and street criminals to steal vehicles for them, then hire "mules," as the drivers are known, to drive the vehicles down to the border to transport undocumented immigrants into the United States. Smuggling organizations also hire mules to drive the stolen vehicles into Mexico and then back across the border loaded with drugs.
Extended-cab pickups and SUVs can easily be navigated over rough terrain and hold many people or large amounts of drugs, authorities say.
"They take the rear seats out, spray the windows with paint so you can't see inside very well, and stack 18 or 20 people inside, literally like cordwood," (Public Safety Sgt. Terry) Starner said.
The national Uniform Crime Report from the FBI (PDF) now has an interactive map that allows you to zero in on the latest statistics from many major cities. The auto theft stats begin on page 11 of the report.
Here is one of the better tips pages that I have seen for fighting car theft.
Victims of Juvenile Crime
A brand new study from the Department of Justice says:
About one in five nonfatal violent victimizations involves a juvenile offender, acting either alone or with others -- adult or juvenile. Most victims of juvenile violence are juveniles, including 95 percent of the victims of sexual assaults. Nearly all victims of juvenile violence know the offender.
The study listed these major findings:
Getting Hospitals Wired
U.S. News & World Report went after an interesting project that asks why hospitals aren't more wired. Hospitals still use paper folders, make medical mistakes that cost lives, and can't talk to each other. A couple of years ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said pet records at the veterinarian's offices are stored more electronically than hospitals keep your records. But now, the story says, hospitals are waking up.
In fact a new list of the "most wired" hospitals is just out.
How will all of this make your life easier?
Mosquito Targets
Poynter's Larry Larsen found this one for us. It turns out that about one in 10 people is especially attractive to mosquitoes. Why?
WebMD reports:
While researchers have yet to pinpoint what mosquitoes consider an ideal hunk of human flesh, the hunt is on. "There's a tremendous amount of research being conducted on what compounds and odors people exude that might be attractive to mosquitoes," says Joe Conlon, PhD, technical advisor to the American Mosquito Control Association. With 400 different compounds to examine, it's an extremely laborious process. "Researchers are just beginning to scratch the surface," he says.
Scientists do know that genetics account for a whopping 85 percent of our susceptibility to mosquito bites. They've also identified certain elements of our body chemistry that, when found in excess on the skin's surface, make mosquitoes swarm closer.
"People with high concentrations of steroids or cholesterol on their skin surface attract mosquitoes," Butler tells WebMD. That doesn't necessarily mean that mosquitoes prey on people with higher overall levels of cholesterol, Butler explains. They simply may be more efficient at processing cholesterol, the byproducts of which remain on the skin's surface.
So, if a mosquito is biting you, is it better to swat it dead or flick it off in mid-bite? Hey, maybe it's not a stupid question (and then again maybe it is). The New England Journal of Medicine told about a rare fungal infection from smeared mosquito guts. So what do you do? Read the story from Canada's Globe and Mail.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.
