Challenging traffic conditions even by Chicago’s standards. Several vehicles in spin outs and off the road. No major crashes with major injuries known at this time in the northwest suburbs for the morning rush hour.
For many people, the back-to-work day was a brutal way to start the year.
Crash on Route 53 over Interstation 90.
SNOW PLAN CRASH LOG FOR Thursday, January 02, 2014.
Scene outside the office just before 1230. Visibility well under 1/4 mi at the time. #lakeeffectsnow #ilwx pic.twitter.com/7raux7OgtO
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) January 2, 2014
1218 PM: Near WHITE-OUT conditions right now at NWS Chicago! Best to avoid travel if possible in #lakeeffectsnow areas. #ilwx
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) January 2, 2014
Note to residents of Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg:
Local traffic conditions cannot be comprehensively monitored by the media in these communities because police use secret military-grade encrypted radios. Traffic operations communications by the police cannot be monitored regarding traffic congestion, changing weather conditions observed by police, ice/snow/slippery road conditions, road hazards, road blocks, railroad crossing malfunctions, traffic signal malfunctions, property damage crashes, and water main breaks.
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, such as when desperate offenders of property crimes are eluding police. 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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