Normal Police Officer gives community crime update

NORMAL, Ill. – The Town of Normal has recently seen an uptick in retail theft. Normal Police Department Public Information Officer Brad Park elaborated on this issues and others effecting the community.

“Every now and again, we will see a specific crew looking for a specific item at a specific store,” Park said. “For example, we have seen a couple of people coming into Von Maur to attempt to take similar high-end pairs of jeans.”

Park claims there is little rhyme or reason for the patterns of occurrence of organized retail theft. Theft rings in Normal show no preference between large national chains and local mom-and-pop establishments.  Many of the higher-value items the department catches being stolen are from large national retailers, but smaller establishments still see their share of small-scale theft.

Another frequently occurring crime for Normal is telephone scamming.  

“Even though everyone should be on the lookout for scams, we generally see them affect the older population.” Park said.

One specific telephone scam reported numerous times consisted of a scammer’s impersonation of a member of the Normal P.D.

“We want to make sure that people understand … we would never call anybody and threaten an arrest if they don’t pay a fine,”

The Normal Police also see an increase in reports of domestic violence during the wintertime.

“During the colder months, people stay inside and are together more often.  This, naturally, provides more opportunity for domestic disputes to arise.”

The Normal P.D. non-emergency number is 309-454-9535.