Got a serious gripe against MCSD?

There is an online petition being circulated to request the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the McHenry County Sheriff Department.

There are many good employees at the Sheriff's Department; the petition is not aimed at them. However, there seem to be numerous questionable practices reaching the public eye, such as the current attention to racial profiling.

The current online petition can be found at www.rightsworkinggroup.org/content/stop-racial-profiling-mchenry-county-il  The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR - http://www.icirr.org/) is sponsoring this petition. ICIRR doesn't like the racial profiling that has been revealed at the the McHenry County Sheriff's Department and which has been publicized in a Federal civil rights lawsuit being heard in Rockford.

It seems to me that Sheriff Keith Nygren was on the Board (of Directors? of Trustees?) of ICIRR not too long ago. I saw his name on the list on ICIRR's website. When I looked the next time, it was gone. Trying to get the dates from ICIRR of his medmbership on the Board is as hard as trying to get Board information out of Crime Stoppers of McHenry County. What is the secrecy all about?

Online petitions may or may not be effective. It probably depends on what really happens to all the names and information gathered and whether the "signers" of an online petition can be verified. If you are in favor of the topic of the petition, add your electronic signature.

But you might also take a more direct route and file any complaint directly with the U.S. Department of Justice. Visit http://www.justice.gov/ and click on "Contact Us", then on "Submit a Complaint" in the DOJ box to he right. Then click on "Complaint against DOJ employee or DOJ funded organization". From there, choose your options.