Comment on Sessom conviction

I decided not to comment on the Sessom conviction by the SAO within the same article, but instead to ask a few questions here, separately.

In searching the Northwest Herald website by the suspect's last name, Sessom, I found no article that he reported his arrest. This caused me to wonder whether the Woodstock Police Department had issued a press release and/or notified the Northwest Herald and The Woodstock Independent of Sessom's arrest.

When a Chicago man cruises Woodstock streets and attempts to pick up a girl who has just left a school bus, this seems newsworthy to me. Not only should folks in town learn of it quickly through the newspapers, perhaps even school officials should distribute news of the arrest through the school information network, to raise the alertness of parents and students.

From the three entries on the Northwest Herald website, one cannot discern when the crime took place. The Grand Jury indicted him, according to a June 15, 2009 entry on the Northwest Herald website. Grand juries may act fairly quickly after a crime is reported, so do we assume that the crime occurred in April or May, toward the end of the last school year?

The Woodstock Independent does a pretty good job of including many crimes in Woodstock by reporting them weekly. The Northwest Herald fails Woodstock readers by reporting only a few crimes, and only about once a month.

When residents in a town or city know, accurately, what crimes are being committed, then they can decide whether to turn up the heat on the City Council and the Police Department for increased enforcement. When the crime information doesn't reach the public in a timely manner, or at all, then the public is uninformed - and that's never good.

Could the Police Department and the City of Woodstock do a much better job of keeping residents informed? You bet!