Citizen's Alert Social media Network of McHenry County
While serving on the board of Crimestoppers in Marengo for many years, I became increasingly aggravated that the crime in McHenry county was not being publicized in the Northwest Herald to the capacity I felt it should have been. In asking the police department to report the crime to the paper, they said they do, but the paper will not print it. In asking the paper why they don't print it, they said the police do not send it. I was running around in little circles.
Frustrated, I have since quit the Crimestoppers organization. I believed that the police department could have benefited from having its community alerted. There are approximately 20,000 sets of eyes in Marengo alone. I didn't understand why the police department and our newspaper didn't want to take advantage of us.
I'm sure you've noticed that the Northwest Herald reports driving offenses and domestic abuse, but when it comes to real crime, it remains unreported. I'm not diminishing the value of reporting driving offenses and domestic abuse, but this is reported crime that our citizens can do nothing about. However, if my neighbor's house has been burglarized, I want to know about it.
I've lived in Marengo for over 12 years now. I am a nail technician, just a mere citizen. I have a few clients that come to my home. They have friends. I have been actively involved with the local dance studio for 8 years. I've made a few friends. Altogether, I had quite a large base of citizen's email addresses. When the rash of burglaries were high last year, I was getting a lot of information from my friends, neighbors, and clients. There was a burglary on the street on which I live and that was the last straw for me. Since the newspaper wasn't reporting it, I became angry and decided to do something about it.
I created the "Citizens Alert Social Media Network of McHenry County." I took email addresses from as many people as I could, and reported these burglaries as the newspaper was not. I tried to only report that in which I was certain happened. If I knew something happened and I heard it directly from a friend or neighbor of that individual, I would send out what I call a "Citizen's Alert." I refuse to take third party information because as we all know, the "telephone" method of reporting is often inaccurate.
My network has grown rather large, and due to the volume of people I was able to alert, I was able to bring attention to the burglaries that would have otherwise went unnoticed. If I was able to get one person to lock their doors, I have accomplished what I set out to do. Since then, I currently receive full cooperation from the Marengo Police Department and the McHenry County Sheriff's office.
I believe that it was because of the overwhelming response to my email about the burglaries that the police and the newspaper both became actively involved in getting the "word" out to the public. I am in no way making money doing this. I am volunteering to help the community...and it's working. Every time I send out a new "Citizen's Alert," new people ask to be on my "list." I really like it when it's quiet and I have nothing to email my contacts, but over the past week, I received information on a man in Marengo exposing himself to two minor children. I was alerted to this and quickly alerted my network. This incident happened Friday, May 4th, and I have yet to see anything in the Northwest Herald...go figure. It does my heart good to know that with my network, at least the citizens in my community have been alerted where they otherwise would not have been.
The list has expanded now, to almost 200 people. I would like to see that number grow. I believe that if we pull together, we can make a difference. I believe we already have. I now receive emails from people in my network, alerting me to pass information through the network. It has become self-perpetuating.
If you would like to be on my "list," just email me and I will add you. You will receive all the information I am provided. You are welcome to add your friends to the list if I can use you as a reference. Please get the permission of your friend first, before you email me to add them. If, at any time, you decide to be taken off the list, please contact me and I will remove you.
Stay Safe, Stay Vigilant.
Kristin Ottolino
rio.2001@hotmail.com
(Note from Gus: Your email address is safe with Kristin. When she emails Alerts, everyone gets a "blind carbon copy (bcc:)". No one else will see your email address.)
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