Police Car

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - An effort to crack down on underage drinking and other alcohol-related behaviors is yielding results at six college campuses across the state, but some students say it's taken the fun out of tailgating before a game. Officers from the Indiana Excise Police are targeting Ball State, Indiana State, Notre Dame, Purdue, Butler and Indiana universities this fall as part of the Intensified College Enforcement program. The goal: to "essentially change behavior," said Cpl. Travis Thickstun, spokesman for the excise police.

SOUTH BEND - It may be much more than just not making a police report and then lying about it that has a decorated South Bend police officer on the hot seat. Patrolman Chris Bortone is on paid administrative leave for failing to file a report after a shoplifting incident he investigated and then lying about it. The department is recommending Bortone be fired. There was a lengthy hearing Tuesday before South Bend's Board of Public Safety regarding Bortone. During the hearing, there was testimony Bortone has a "past history" during his 10 years on the force.  Just five years ago, a smiling Bortone excepted his Officer of the Year award for arresting a suspect wanted for a string of arsons on the city's southeast side.  Fast forward to Tuesday's hearing when a serious, straight-faced Bortone dodged allegations he lied about why he did not make a police report after he investigated a theft at the Meijer store on Portage Road on March 31. Interim Police Chief Chuck Hurley and former Unit Division Chief Jeffrey Walters both testified they are recommending Bortone be fired for more than just this latest incident.

MIDDLEBURY - A Goshen woman is dead after a two-car crash near Middlebury early Wednesday morning. Elkhart County police say around 1:20 a.m., 40-year-old Arellano Eustolia was heading south on State Road 13, about a mile south of Middlebury's town limits when she made a left-hand turn to head east onto County Road 20. At the same time, another car was coming from behind and tried to pass a separate car, failing to see Eustolia making the...

SOUTH BEND — The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners today approved the purchase of 18 new county police vehicles. By a vote of 3-0, commissioners accepted the low bid of $313,925 submitted by Gates Automotive Group of Mishawaka. Gates bid $348,600 for the new vehicles minus $34,675 for 15 trade-ins ranging in age from 5 to 9 years old. Gates bid was nearly $30,000 less than the next lowest bid, submitted by Lake Shore Ford of Burns Harbor, Ind. The new vehicles include eight marked cars and 10 unmarked cars.

MECCA, Ind. (AP) — Police say a western Indiana fire chief is being held on a preliminary drunken driving charge after his car crashed into a house, killing a man and critically injuring his wife. Parke County Chief Deputy Sheriff Bill Todd tells the Tribune-Star of Terre Haute that 43-year-old Stacey Williamson was pronounced dead at the scene of early Tuesday's accident. His 46-year-old wife, Mary Williamson, is in critical condition at an Indianapolis hospital.

VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) - State police say a 4-year-old boy was killed and a man seriously hurt when a southwestern Indiana sheriff's deputy trying to make a traffic stop ran into a van. Police say the crash happened in Vincennes after the Knox County deputy had turned on his squad car's emergency lights and sirens in pursuit of a fleeing car and drove into an intersection without stopping at a stop sign, hitting the left...

MICHIGAN CITY - A pair of new police cars are about to hit the streets of Michigan City, and you might be amazed what they look like. The city through South Shore Clean Cities has received a donation from the “THINK” Electric Car Company of two electric cars for the police department.  “In January, I began to inquire about the cars and their possible use,” said Michigan City Police Sgt. Chris Yagelski. “I thought the uniqueness of the cars and the fact that they were 100% “green” led me to the possible creation of a new public relations tool for the police department.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Authorities say two Indianapolis police officers were slightly injured when their squad cars collided as one of them swerved to avoid a mattress on Interstate 70. A police report says the officers were heading east to a call with their emergency lights flashing on the city's east side Friday night when Officer Daryl Jones spotted the mattress in the left lane. The report says Jones was unable to move to the right lane because of a semitrailer there and collided with Officer Malachi West's car. The Indianapolis Star reports ( http://bit.ly/pn5tm4   )

  (NECN: Justin Michaels) - A Vermont man is accused of single-handedly leaving a path of destruction at one police station. He's in court Friday, charged with crushing cars under a tractor. The man is 34-year-old Roger Pion, and police say he just had a grudge against the Orleans County Vermont Sheriff's department. "It sounded like somebody had just made a u-turn on a driveway at first then it was too loud," said Gilles Delabruere.   You might think this is the crushed car section of a junk yard, but, if you do, you're wrong.

A Goshen Police officer found her assigned squad car was targeted by one or more vandals early Saturday morning. A window was smashed and several items stolen from inside the car, which was parked in the 300 block of South 8th Street.  A Goshen Police report noted none of the items stolen were weapons. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Goshen Police at 574-533-8661.