McHenry County Crime Stoppers Secrecy Continues By Gus Philpott
Requests to Crime Stoppers for McHenry County for information continue to go unanswered. Recently, I emailed Mary Torscher, who identified herself last October as Secretary of the organization in her sole response. I asked whether Crime Stoppers for McHenry County is a Federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and, if so, its FEIN.
Has she replied? Has she even acknowledged my request? No, on both accounts.
There is a national Crime Stoppers organization called Crime Stoppers USA. On its website they list "McHenry County Crime Stoppers" as a member. A membership requirement is 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS.
The problems?
The business name is not "McHenry County Crime Stoppers". The Illinois Secretary of State has recorded the legal name as "Crime Stoppers for McHenry County". Correct legal names are important.
And IRS has no record of either name.IRS does list a McHenry Area Crime Stoppers, but this is the old program of the McHenry (Ill.) Police Department, not the County-wide Crime Stoppers group. Even Crime Stoppers USA confused the old McHenry Area Crime Stoppers with Crime Stoppers for McHenry County. Now they know that they are different.
This wouldn't be such a big deal, except for the stone-walling by the Crime Stoppers for McHenry County organization. By hiding out behind a P.O. Box and refusing to respond to letters (and emails, since I found Torscher's email address), it beginning to feel like they have something to hide.
Do the board members know that the Secretary is ignoring legitimate inquiries?
If the organization is not a 501(c)(3) organization, it is not eligible to be a member of Crime Stoppers USA. Will it be eliminated from membership until it can meet that requirement?
Where are the financial records of Crime Stoppers for McHenry County? How much does it take in in a year and from what sources? Is it soliciting "donations" and leading contributors to believe that their contributions are tax-deductible? What are its expenditures?
Is an annual meeting and banquet planned for this month? Will it again be at the Woodstock Country Club? What does a fete like that cost? How much money did Crime Stoppers for McHenry County turn over to the McHenry County Sheriff's Department last year for equipment and training that the taxpayers ought to be paying for?
Why does it not care about concerns about the operation of the anonymous tip line? Three callers last year were less than satisfied, yet the organization expressed no interest in knowing what the problems were.
The only legitimate confidential part of Crime Stoppers is the identity of a caller to the tip line and the tip provided to law enforcement. Crime Stoppers is not a "black" operation. Its funding, operations and membership should be transparent.
The the above is from Gus Philpott’s blog , Woodstock Advocate. The article is available at : http://woodstockadvocate.blogspot.com/2011/02/crime-stoppers-secrecy-continues.html
Earlier stories by Gus on various Crime Stoppers are available on Woodstock Advocate. The titles and addresses are: Why so secretive?: http://woodstockadvocate.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-so-secretive.html ; Dallas officer accused in theft from CrimeStoppers : http://woodstockadvocate.blogspot.com/2011/01/dallas-officer-stole-from-crimestoppers.html ; "Official" website now for the missing Beth Bentley: http://woodstockadvocate.blogspot.com/2011/01/official-website-now-for-missing-beth.html
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