Never would hold back information if they believed doing so would put the public at risk.

It happens in an instant: A quiet suburb that most people living even just a few miles away couldn't find without a map becomes synonymous with the most grisly of crimes.It happened in Tinley Park, where a gunman went into a women's clothing store on a Saturday morning earlier this month and shot six women, killing five.Now authorities hunting for the man who executed the women during an attempted robbery Feb. 2 are under an unrelenting spotlight unlike anything the Chicago suburb has dealt with before. The department is being tested, as is its ability to at once investigate the crime, keep the public apprised of developments and try to control information -- and misinformation -- coming out about the case.As authorities continue to hunt for the man who executed five women in Tinley Park, the slayings have tested the department and its ability to at once investigate the crime, keep the public apprised of what it is doing and try to control the information that has come out. Like many crime stories, this one is made up of official accounts, anonymous tips and rumors, as both detectives and reporters track down leads.
But Tinley Park's case has from the beginning included something else: A conscious decision by police not to reveal that along with the five women who were killed, a sixth woman inside the Lane Bryant store had survived a gunshot wound to her neck.Not until three days after the shooting, and only after the survivor's family talked to the press, did police confirm her existence.Quietly, law enforcement officials said there was a very good reason, but the department wouldn't comment. On Thursday, Tinley Park's mayor explained the goal was not to deceive the public."But if the killer knew that he had killed all (the) people he would have been more liable to make a mistake, brag about it, as opposed to know someone's alive and go underground," Mayor Edward Zabrocki said.Police feared that if they released information on the survivor, the gunman might change his appearance, leave the area or otherwise make himself more difficult to find. And Police Commander Rick Bruno said the department never would hold back information if they believed doing so would put the public at risk.
"We were not necessarily trying to mislead anyone other than maybe the guy who pulled the trigger," Bruno said.
But at least one expert argues such a premise is misguided; that police are deceiving the public and not criminal suspects.
"You are keeping it from who? The people that already know," said Chris Ryan, who teaches law enforcement worldwide about how to deal with the media and the public.

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