Friday, October 4, 2013

Crime Preservation = job security?

The following comment appeared on The McHenry County Blog on September 29, 2013, at 8:16 am, when "Fukoku Kyohei" wrote: "Absolutely Cary Crime Stoppers donated to Andrew Zinke's campaign, its [sic] called Crime Preservation."

The comment was one of 52 comments to Cal Skinner's article titled Operating Engineers Pop for $12,300 in Signs for Andy Zinke.

There have been some guesses to the identity of "Fukoku Kyohei".

But "Crime Preservation"?

Does preserving crime require a fully-funded sheriff's department? 

(Temporarily-detached) Deputy Zane Seipler questions whether a 501(c)(3) can donate to a political campaign or support a candidate. Recently, The Advantage Group (TAG) [not to be confused with Woodstock's AdvantagePlus real estate operation] found its neck in a noose over political support and lost out on $49,000 from the McHenry County Mental Health Board.

Why would a Crime Stoppers organization toss $1,000 at Zinke? That has to be among its largest outlays. Crime Stoppers is supposed to be fighting crime, not preserving it. And, while Crime Stoppers' groups advertise that they pay "up to $1,000" for tips, some of them actually pay out only about $300 (on the average over a year). But Zinke gets the full $1,000?

Woodstock Area Crime Stoppers must not have done a very good job at "preserving" crime, because it was involuntarily dissolved on August 14, 2013. Not a very honorable ending to a worthy (or should have been) organization. Its Board did not respond to expressions of interest to keep it going with fresh faces.

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