To the press: shhhhh........

It's amazing what you can find that is (almost) in plain view.

While searching on www.mchenrysheriff.org/ (which links to the official website of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department) for information on any plans for a new public safety building (I didn't find information about that on the official website, only on the political campaign website of the current sheriff), I found a Notice to the press that should be of interest to all McHenry County residents.

On the official website of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department is an index of press releases. One, in particular, caught my eye because of the Index title: "Urgent Message to Media".

What was the urgent message?

Read it for yourself at http://www.co.mchenry.il.us/departments/sheriff/Press%20Releases/12-09-09TatooUrgent2.pdf

It's about a December 7, 2009, 1:00AM burglary at Lakeside Liquors in Wonder Lake. Deputies are looking for a white male with a tattoo on his neck. Apparently, there is video of the burglar.

What's surprising about this December 9 press release is that it asks the media to withhold this information from the public!

Instead of publicizing the suspect's description and an image from the video, along with a detailed description of the tattoo and some estimate of age, height, weight, facial hair and clothing, the press release asks the media to withhold the information that investigators are looking for a white male with a tattoo.

Well, heck! You wouldn't want to solve a crime too quickly,would you? That might mean the sheriff's detectives would have more time to chase down 13-year-old warrants.