CHICAGO (WBBM Newsradio 780) -- They are carefully designed hiding places in a car where weapons, explosives, drugs, and money can be concealed. Police call them traps.
And Chicago police say they are finding at least three times the number of traps they were finding just two years ago.
WBBM Newsradio 780s Steve Miller continues our series, "Finding the Trap."
It's a training session for tactical officers. How to look for hidden compartments, or traps, as they call them. The trainer: Chicago Police Sergeant John Hamilton.
"This one has a compartment in the glove box area. The entire glove box is on a power trunk release... So we'll let them take a look at it. Because obviously that's the goal, to get them to learn how to find them."
"Do you have to pinch them on the sides?"
"No, you don't have to pinch anything, just pull it straight out..."
Sergeant Hamilton says he trains people to change the way they think. Don't look for the gun under the seat. Look for the telltale signs of a hidden compartment. Don't try to figure out the tricky, intricate maneuvers that would make a compartment open. Just look for signs of a compartment.
One officer sees duct tape.
"That's the only giveaway, though, it looks like. Is there another one?"
"No, remember how I showed you the.... It shouldn't be flat, it should be wide open."
Sergeant Hamilton says it's not a matter of being a car expert. "It's a matter of repetition and memory. You look at 25 Ford Tauruses," he says, and they're all the same. You see the 26th one, then you notice the non-factory modifications."
Coming up in the next part of our series: the man they call Trapper John.
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