Streamwood police charged a Streamwood High School student with unlawful use of a weapon on school ground (as a juvenile) after police found a handgun near the campus of Streamwood High School. The student was also charged with aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting/obstructing arrest. The male student’s identity is not being released because he was charged as a juvenile.
The handgun was recovered Friday in a residential area just off school property, when about 2:30 p.m. rumors spread that a firearm had been brought to the campus. The school activated an almost 90-minute lockdown of school property. Police and K-9 units from multiple agencies scoured school property to investigate. Police said there were no injuries linked to the incident.
According to a message sent to parents from the District U-46 safety coordinator, students at Streamwood High School reported to a dean that a classmate had a weapon at about 2 p.m. Friday.
That student was brought out of class for questioning, but the student ran from the building into the surrounding neighborhood. He apparently was in possession of the weapon while in school and dumped the weapon in the neighborhood when he fled, but this has not been confirmed by police.
The student was taken to the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center today, but no information was available regarding where the student was apprehended or how the duration of time from when he fled school to the time of his arrest.
It is unknown at this time if neighbors near the school were notified by reverse 9-1-1 regarding an armed subject fleeing in their neighborhood. No known Twitter account is administered by Streamwood Police Department or the Village of Streamwood to notify residents of active dangerous situations in real time.
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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