Arlington Heights police responded about 9:10 PM Thursday to an armed robbery at the Shell Gas Station, 3 West Algonquin Road Arlington Heights, IL. Police received a report that an offender entered the gas station and walked behind the counter before confronting the a 47-year-old male clerk. The offender displayed a black handgun and told the clerk to open the register. The offender ordered the clerk to the ground before going through several register drawers and removing an unknown amount of cash. He also took several packs of cigarettes before running out of the station and then southbound. The clerk was not injured.
The offender was described as a male/black 6’0″ to 6’2″ thin build, approximately age 45, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. The offender’s hoodie was positioned to obscure identification of his face.
No vehicle description or “direction of travel while fleeing information” was released by police.
The crime is reported to have occurred on Thursday at 9:09 p.m.
Arlington Heights Police Department released information about this crime at 9:07 a.m. on Friday, November 1, 2013.
Map of area of armed robbery at gas station at Arlington Heights Road and Algonquin Road …
Cardinal Note: As of June 5, 2013 — up to and including the date of this article — police incidents related to the above police agency are not reported in real time or within a prompt time period. Police protecting their realm of investigation and police activity, have chosen to use secret military-grade encrypted radios to withhold their police communications, which were previously open to the public and news media via monitoring of public safety scanning radios — with no known negative results locally.
The delayed knowledge or entirely blacked out knowledge resulting from encrypted police communications may protect certain police operations and investigations, but it also puts the public at risk in situations such as when armed and dangerous offenders are at large and when other similar situations occur. In other cases, the delayed or blacked out information inhibits or prohibits the possibility of the public providing early witness accounts before a criminal trail goes cold. Citizens are much more likely to recognize or recall suspicious or criminal activity if they are aware of the criminal incident within minutes or hours of its occurrence. The most serious incident involving dire results would be a trail that is allowed to go cold in the case of child abduction.
The lack of real time information from public police dispatch also weakens an effective neighborhood watch program mostly working to prevent property loss, but also working to prevent possible violent crimes.
Police have alternate ways to transmit tactical, operational or investigative information, while still keeping their main public dispatch channels open for the best balance of public safety and police safety.
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