This is going to be a bit long, but bear with it, it might explain.
As I’ve posted on here, I worked for law enforcement for many years in a civilian role. I was a dispatcher, dispatch supervisor, part time evidence officer, system administrator over the numerous computer systems at the department and also at times spokesperson and media liaison. I’m very familiar with investigative procedures and with what is released to the public, why it is release and when. It was a small but very active department.
Years ago we received a call about a missing woman. We took the information and our investigator started working the case. She had disappeared without a trace.
Within about 4 days we knew what had happened. She had been murdered. We knew who had done it. The problem was we had NO hard evidence and NO body. You don’t have a murder case without a body. It would never get past the grand jury level.
So, we kept telling the media we had no leads and no suspects. That was not true at all, but if we said otherwise the suspect would probably rabbit and we’d never solve the case.
We put heavy surveillance on the suspect so that we knew where he was 24/7. We kept telling the media it was maybe a dead end case.
Two weeks later the suspect, feeling like he had got away with it, made a fatal mistake. He went and visited the body. We arrested him on the spot. We would have never found the body otherwise as it was very well hidden. Case closed. If we hadn’t kept quiet and convinced the suspect he got away with it he would not have gone to the body (he admitted as much in interviews after the arrest).
So, there are times when law enforcement must withhold information during an investigation, for the good of the investigation. It’s a fairly simple concept.
Been thinking along these lines.
That is a great reason to keep things close to the police vest. Good ending to that case.
I SO “get that”.
I see no good reason for FBI or local LE to even attempt to inform the public of their every strategy and method, during an ongoing investigation, especially one of this nature where supposedly this shooter’s life style for decades (reportedly) has been oddly “offline”, except for his gambling hours in hotels and casinos.
It’s as if the shooter had been plotting for years to leave mostly a blank trail, nearly as much as the massacre itself.
Talk about an *understated* life, this feat was a sign of gifted mental gymnastics, by itself, wasn’t it? I find all that very curious, myself.