Lack of transparency at MCSD

Just what is the problem with management at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department?

Last Friday about 11:30AM there was a significant traffic crash on Route 176 about four miles east of Route 47. Franklinville Road dead-ends southbound at Route 176, and a short distance west of that intersection P&O Road heads south.

Last night three sets of heavy skidmarks could be observed in the westbound lane of Route 176.

The McHenry County Sheriff's Department investigated the crash. MCSD has a Public Information Officer. That deputy's job is to create press releases for the media.

But she can apparently only do so if told to do so.

Why would Cmdr. John Miller, head of Patrol, not tell the PIO to do so? Doesn't a shift sergeant have the authority to issue information to the press? (OK, you can stop laughing now.)

Is Undersheriff Zinke, already-announced candidate for Sheriff in 2014 (if not sooner), aware that Cmdr. Miller has not authorized a media release about this crash, which resulted in a totaled 38-year-old vehicle and at least one seriously injured person in the hospital.

Is Sheriff Nygren aware that his department apparently does not have a policy of automatically releasing information on major vehicle crashes? This is Operations 101. It's S.O.P., unless you treat the public like mushrooms.

Didn't MCSD just spend a lot of money on CALEA Certification? Didn't it send representatives to Washington, DC to receive the CALEA Certificate? Surely, there are CALEA standards regarding release of information to the public.