Halloween crash report - funny call times |
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Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
November 13, 2010
After a further reading of the early Halloween morning crash report for an off-duty corrections officer, there ought to be some serious questions at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. A Call Log was attached to the FOIA response sent to me. Ask yourself - do these times make sense?
The crash is reported to have occurred about 4:04AM on October 31. It occurred on northbound Alden Road, about 1/4-mile south of McGuire Road, in McHenry County.
When the dispatch call was aired at 4:06AM, three units (3D5 (Dep. Dillon), 3D4 (Dep. Kinter) and S517 (Sgt. Tadelman)) acknowledged the call, and the Call Log indicates their locations as Alden Rd. & McCauley Rd. At least, that's the location in the Comments section of the Call Log. Presumably, that is the location from which they were responding. The importance of this location in the Call Log is that it lets the dispatchers and the other deputies estimate the travel time to the destination, the crash site.
The distance from Alden Road-McCauley Road to Alden Road-McGuire Road is approximately two miles, according to Google maps. So, the response time should have been about two minutes.
The travel times of the three deputies to the crash scene were
Dep. Dillon, 11 min.
Dep. Kinter, 17 min.
Sgt. Tadelman, 22 min.
Obviously, they were not all at Alden & McCauley Roads, when they got the call. So, why isn't the Call Log accurate?
Presumably, Dep. Dillon (and maybe the other two deputies) would have run "hot" (lights & siren), which would cause the in-car video-cameras to operate. Were these deputies 10, 15 and 20 miles away, respectively?
Why is this important? The in-car cameras may have continued to run, when the emergency lights were kept activated after the deputies arrived at the scene.
Why do I think there is something wrong with the MCSD report? When any driver - any driver - reports that he was driving at the speed limit at 4:00AM on a rural highway, I am suspicious. I am the only person I know who obeys the speed limit in McHenry County. When I do so, I am tailgated, followed with bright lights on, passed in no-passing zones; McHenry County drivers do not like drivers who "hold up traffic" by obeying the speed limits.