Not too long ago my sister-in-law and I attended an auction at the Carbondale Civic Center. While perusing the items on display, we came across a stack of paperwork that seemed out of place among the various items for auction.

On closer examination of the documents, we discovered them to be SIU Police crime reports. Not only did they contain detailed descriptions of recent crimes (including a sexual assault), but they also had the names, addresses and statements of victims, assailants, and witnesses.

It is impossible to express how deeply disturbed we were to have found these papers openly displayed in such a thoughtless manner, and in such a public place!

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We asked ourselves, What if those were OUR names and addresses. . .what if evidence of OUR tragedies were displayed for all to see?

Not wanting to turn those highly sensitive documents over to just anyone, we decided to deliver them to the Carbondale Police, where we hoped someone could handle them more responsibly than the SIU Police.

We can only guess whether the SIU Police officer responsible for such an unforgivable mistake was forced to take responsibility for his gross carelessness.

We are left questioning the competence, reliability, and integrity of the SIU Police, who we are expected to trust and respect. Certainly this experience has left us with very little of both.