Patrick Nielsen Hayden asks a damned good question about how we should go about attempting to achieve "security":

Electrolite: October 2002 Archives: I'm far from the only weblog writer to be struck by this observation in this morning's Washington Post. But struck by it I am: &quoy;In the end, it was television reports of information that was not released by the police -- the type of car and license plate of the sniper suspects -- that helped crack the case."

After weeks of the police chiding the media and withholding information from the public, these guys were finally caught because the public got hold of information the police didn't want to release. As Jim Henley has remarked, one wonders why, in urgent cases like this, the authorities don't help us be -- not a herd, but a pack...