Crime must be gone from Woodstock

So long, Woodstock Area Crime Stoppers. It was nice to know ya.

Maybe all the crime has gone from Woodstock. Maybe the drugs are gone. The gangs are gone. Maybe retail thefts at Walmart and Kohl's have stopped. Maybe there are no more drunk drivers. No break-ins. No child molesters. No armed robberies.

Woodstock Area Crime Stoppers is going down the drain. The group of civilians on the Board of Directors apparently voted to disband and has transferred the money remaining in its bank account to the Crime Stoppers for McHenry County group.

Maybe the Board of Directors should contact its attorney and find out his timetable for dissolving the corporation and getting them off the hook as the Board members of a not-for-profit corporation. As of this morning, it still exists on the rolls of the Illinois Secretary of State.

The Crime Stoppers for McHenry County (CSMC) group is even more secretive than the Woodstock group was. A couple of years ago I tried to contact them about the operation of the tip line at the Sheriff's Department, when I encountered a process that didn't seem to work as it was probably created. Two other recent callers to the tip line at that time had the same experience.

Was the CSMC interested? No way. Instead of seeking information about how the tip line wasn't operating correctly, their noses went up in the air and their backs stiffened against the wall, and that was that. They refused to acknowledge further correspondence.

So, how was the accountability of the CSMC to the public? Rotten. It's like a private club. They don't want the public to know who is on the Board of Directors or what they do with all the money they receive from the McHenry County Circuit Court and any other sources.

Do you know how little they really pay out in rewards?

It's a not-for-profit corporation in the State of Illinois, not a secret society. But that's how it operates.