Mount Prospect police responded about 8:26 AM Thursday to a report of a suspicious person at Lions Park Elementary School, 300 East Council Trail Mount Prospect, IL. Police received a report that a person may have had a gun in the area as students were arriving. Lions Park Elementary School was placed in hard lockdown while police searched for the suspect. The suspect was not found by police in the area.
Chief Janowick releases information regarding the suspicious person in the area of Lions Park School, which initiated a precautionary hard lockdown on 12-10-15 at approximately 8:26 AM. The hard lockdown lasted no more than ten minutes. The school has resumed normal activity.
The suspicious suspect was described as a male/Asian, about 5’10” with a medium build in his late 30’s, wearing a dark blue knit, dark jacket, and dark pants. The subject was seen walking in front of the school “in a suspicious manner,” There there were conflicting reports from multiple witnesses about whether a weapon was present.
Police will be on scene at the school the rest of the day and during dismissal. Police will also be in the area.
Police did not describe the direction of travel the victim may have headed when he left the area. Also, no vehicle was described.
Police first tweeted about the incident at 9:13 a.m. — 47 minutes after they received the initial call for the suspicious subject.
Police actively looking for a suspicious subject near Lions Park School.
— MountProspectPolice (@MountProspectPD) December 10, 2015
School on Lockdown as Police Search for "Suspicious Person" https://t.co/9yj5vi7AZs #chicago pic.twitter.com/AWAwQbaLuj
— Chicago News Now (@chicagonewsnow) December 10, 2015
IMPORTANT ALERT …
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.
Lack of real time information from police dispatch also delays public awareness or eliminates public awareness of general hazards and traffic or other situations in every day living in an otherwise economically thriving community.
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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