Election

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:54:07 +0000

By now, you are aware that my bid to be the Republican candidate for Sheriff of Bureau County came up short. I want to thank all of you who supported me and believed in me. As I have said many times, this was never about me and the grief that I feel is not for me. I have this feeling that I let you down. My wife, Joann, always tells me that things happen for a reason. I had wanted so much to change things for the better and maybe there is a better way that I just am having a difficult time seeing. I am also having a difficult time writing this and will be back tomorrow. No matter what, the things that I have said here are things that I believe in and there will be much more in the future. As far as the conditions that exist in the BCSD, those things have not changed and I will continue to point them out and hope that I can influence change. I know that I touched one family in a very special way and I thank them for sharing that with me and I will never forget their kind words.

Starcom 21

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:29:14 +0000

Not sure how many of you read the News Tribune article about Starcom 21 in the January 26, 2010, paper. It was on page A3. According to the article, LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton is concerned about the safety of his deputies because of the “dead zones” in the currently used Starcom radio system. The LaSalle County Board will be considering alternative radio systems and has asked the States Attorney to research what it would take to break the Starcom contract. LaSalle County is 1 of only 7 counties out of 102 counties in Illinois who uses Starcom. This is the radio system that the Office of the Bureau County Sheriff wants to put into place in Bureau County. The radio system currently in use in Bureau County already has “dead zones” that require the deputies on patrol to, at certain times, use their personal cell phones to contact a dispatcher. Why would anyone want to change to a sytem that has the same faults as the current system, but would cost Bureau County much more over the long term? And a system that would continue to place Bureau County deputies in the same dangerous situation that they are currently in. I am sure that if you were to find the correct venue, the Office of the Sheriff would answer that question.

Open Letter

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:51:29 +0000

There is a view of law enforcement, probably strengthened by shows such as “Cops”, “CSI”’ or any of the other action law enforcement-type television shows or popular movies. The reality of it is much different. Oh sure, there is excitement and the adrenaline rushes, but those are rare. It is difficult for someone to understand who has never had to face, and struggle with, a subject in the middle of the night when it is just you and any help that may be on the way is not going to be there for an “extended” period of time. Or be the deputy working in the jail when an inmate decides he is going to challenge you and your partner has gone for something to eat. Or be the dispatcher who has to sit helplessly staring at a microphone when the dispatcher can hear pleas for help and can only sit there and listen.

The women and men of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department are very special people. Each one of them volunteered to accept a commission as a deputy sheriff. No one forced them to do it. They all had different reasons for placing themselves at the service of the residents of Bureau County.

This message is directed to those women and men. There are, I am sure, many rumors that are circulating as to why I want to be the Sheriff of Bureau County. There is only one reason: to make the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department the most professional agency it can be. Integrity, accountability, and honesty will be the standard. Previously elected Sheriff’s have terminated employees, for whatever reasons, upon being sworn into office. I will not pursue that course. Each and every current employee will retain their rank and assignments upon my election. A lot of time and money has been invested in each of you and I see no reason to waste that because our opinions may differ. Over the past few months my mere presence has forced the current administration to make changes. I have been vocal over the Merit Commission and the dangerous equipment that you have been using for years. Although others may take the credit, and they have, I have influenced those decisions. In the end, you and the Department are the better for it. I am hesitant to offer detailed thoughts about my plans as someone else will once again pick up on them and take credit. Having said that, I will share with each of you one of those plans. During the first 180 days that I am the Sheriff, I will meet with every employee, in a confidential setting and at a time of your choice. That meeting will be for the purpose of reviewing your personnel and training jackets. I intend to purge those negative items that may have been retained for too long a period. I will be looking at training jackets and asking you what you feel is the course that will help you attain your goals and benefit the entire department and the residents of Bureau County. I will put into place a system of honest annual evaluations, as required by the Merit Commission, that is not based on you writing your own evaluation or composed of positive statements that someone else was forced to write about you.

As I stated earlier, this message is intended for the employees of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department. The reason I am putting it here is that I want everyone to hear what I have to say. Some of the employees are prevented from listening to or talking to me. If you are acquainted with an employee, please pass this on to them. Thank You.

Certification

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:54:51 +0000

Prior to my announcing that I would seek the Office of Sheriff of Bureau County, I searched the Illinois statutes to ensure that my candidacy would not be in violation on any statutes, especially in the area of certifications. 55 Illinois Compiled Statute (ILCS) 5/3-6001.5, Sheriff Qualifications, contains no mandated certification requirements to be elected to the office of Sheriff in any county in Illinois. I have requested the California Commission on Police Officers Standards of Training (POST) send me a certified list of all approved courses that I have completed. I have copies of my Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced certificates and will provide copies of those certificates upon request, provided my opponents provide copies of their certifications. Although I have never attended the FBI National Academy, I do have copies of all leadership courses I completed or instructed while in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Interestingly enough, as I was doing that research, I discovered 55 Illinois Compiled Statute 5/3-6007, Training (Sheriff). Each sheriff in the State of Illinois is mandated to obtain “at least 20 hours of training, approved by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board”. Under this statute, a sheriff is authorized to be reimbursed by the county for expenses incurred obtaining this training, upon “presentation by the sheriff to the county board a certificate of completion” for such training. My reading of this statute is that a sheriff shall complete this training and present the county board with certification of completion of the required hours whether or not he claims the mileage. A simple matter of transparency. In the time I have been a member of the Bureau County Board, over a year, I have yet to see this proof of training for the Office of the Sheriff. As the Sheriff of Bureau County, I will submit this certification to the County Board immediately upon completion of the mandated training.

Bureau County Sheriff’s Merit Commission

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:40:47 +0000

Can someone please explain to me why, after months of my asking, the Office of the Bureau County Sheriff finally held a meeting of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Merit Commission on 18 December, 2009, in the office the Sheriff? And, as an outcome of that meeting, job announcements for the position of Deputy Sheriff have been published for the first time in years. The first thing that you should know is that the Sheriff’s Merit Commission does not BELONG to the Office of the Sheriff. In fact, if you visit the Bureau County Sheriff’s website and look under the tab entitled “Employment Information” you will read that the Merit Commission is “a separate entity of Bureau County Government”. In a nutshell, the Merit Commission has the responsibility to provide the Office of the Sheriff with a list of qualified applicants for a job as a Bureau County Deputy Sheriff/Dispatcher and identify those members of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department who are eligible for a promotion. Please do not read anything into what I say as any thing negative about any employee currently working at the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department. Rather this is to give you insight into another example of the “Chief Law Enforcement Officer” of Bureau County picking and choosing which statutes he wants to abide by. A review of the Bureau County Budget in regard to the Merit Commission will reveal that the annual budget includes such items as Publication of legals, Testing applicants, Polygraph, and Physical exam. A further exam will reveal that for the years 2008 and 2009, the Merit Commission spent $0.00 for publication of legals, $643.00 for testing applicants ($58.00 in 2008 & $585.00 in 2009), $0.00 for polygraph tests, and $158.00 for physical exams($0.00 in 2008 & $159.00 in 2009). Yet, during that same two year time span, the Office of the Sheriff hired 10 full time employees and 7 part time employees. The staff of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Office are a group of hard working individuals and I want to stress that I am not taking anything away from them. The Office of the Sheriff has placed itself above the wishes of the voters of Bureau County and the guidelines as established in the Illinois statutes. Just asking if the timing of this meeting could be for political purposes?

K9 Patrol Car Markings

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:18:26 +0000

One of the invaluable assests that a law enforcement agency can have is a K9 team and the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department can count itself lucky to have not one, but two K9 teams. However, when a department initiates a dog section it automatically increases its vulnerability to law suits. One of the primary precautions that is normally taken is to ensure that the patrol car being used is marked with a warning so an individual would know that the K9 dog was in the car. Recently I was made aware that one of the marked patrol cars from the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department was being used as a K9 patrol car, however that car had no warnings posted on it. The unit number of that patrol car is S6-17. As you are aware, I am a member of the Bureau County Board of Supervisors and one of the committees that I sit on is the Buildings and Grounds (B&G). At the B&G meeting last night, 6 January, I attemped to find out when the K9 car would have the warnings put on. The Sheriff became visibily agitated when I asked him. He very curty replied that, although I had the right to ask that question, he can choose not to answer it. He did tell the committee members that the K9 cars being used by the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department were all marked. As I stepped out of the courthouse after the meeting, unit S6-17 drove by me with a dog in the back of the car and it had no warning markings on the doors. Either the Sheriff is unaware of what happens within his department or he chose to provide the committee with a statement that was less than accurate. The question about when the K9 unit will be marked is still on the table and any one of you might ask the Sheriff when this will be corrected. Hopefully you will get an answer and in a much more civil manner. You might also ask him when the windows in the back of unit S6-17 will be tinted to provide a humane area for the K9 dog. Although that is not an issue at the present, it most certainly be when summer arrives.

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:12:56 +0000

Utah Deputy Sheriff Josie Greathouse Fox was shot and killed yesterday. My heart goes out to her family and friends! The guy who shot her in the neck and left her on a remote desert road is still on the loose. He is a previously deported illegal alien. I hate the very idea of having to put that black band on my badge.

Dispatch

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:15:03 +0000

How many of you are aware the the Office of the Bureau County Sheriff had been offered Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) computers that would have been provided at no cost as part of a grant? Oh, this is not something that has happened recently, however, the Office of the Sheriff refused the computers partly because each terminal would have cost $22.00 per month for access to state databases. Acquiring those computers would have had the effect of allowing the staff to provide services in a much more efficient manner and to respond at a quicker rate. Deputies would have been able to stay in their patrol areas for longer periods of time, the work load on the dispatchers would have dropped as the deputies in the field would have been able to access databases that are now being used over the radio, data could have been more efficiently stored and shared, and the patrol deputies would have an extra margin of safety as their radio transmissions could not have been overheard on a scanner. Now that the FCC narrowbanding requirement is staring the County in the face, the Office of the Sheriff wants to install a radio system in the Sheriff’s Department that is entiltled “Starcom 21″. Don’t get me wrong, Starcom 21 is a very good system. However, the cost of using this system is somewhere in the area of $35.00 per radio per month. This system is being offered by the State of Illinois and is currently being used by the Illinois State Police and in only 7 of the 102 counties in Illinois. The State of Illinois itself has stated that this system is for “command and control” purposes rather than every day useage. The FCC narrowbanding requirement is not something recent, but dates back to December, 2004. The Office of the Sheriff has had over 5 years to begin to replace outdated radios with radios that would be able to meet the new requirements, but, in those 5 years, has not purchased a single radio or other communication equipment. During those 5 years, no updates have been done to either the dispatch radio system or the mapping system left when BuEComm moved out. Only minimal repairs have been done to the radios as needed, and, in fact, the radios system has degraded to the point that it is almost unuseable. The Office of the Sheriff wants to purchase approximatley 60 new radios at a cost in the area of $800.00 per radio ($48,000.00) and would then have to pay the monthy fee ($2100.00, $25,200.00 annually) for those radios. There has been talk of getting some grants for those costs; however, if those grants are not acquired, the County would have to bear the entire cost of this purchase and the grants would never cover the monthly user fee. Another example of there being no strategic plan in place in the Office of the Bureau County Sheriff.

Uniform Maintenance Allowance

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:04:45 +0000

The cost to purchase and maintain deputy sheriff’s uniform items has risen with all other costs over the years. Sheriff’s departments understand this fact and provide their staff with a uniform maintenance allowance. My experience with this benefit is that it is provi…ded to every eligible employee at a predetermined date and that it will increase as the cost of living increases, usually when a new contract is signed. However that is not the case in the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department. The current uniform maintenance allowance is $400.00 per year, unless the employee is an investigator, then the amount is $100.00 per month ($1,200 per year). The amount for employees other that investigators has not increased in at least 10 years and the amount is not contained in the contract, but left to the whim of the Office of the Sheriff. A uniformed employee who needs to access this fund must “beg” permission to get any funding and then can only acquire items at a certain location. However, before any funding is provided to the employee, the employee must check the returned clothing rack in the basement of the jail. If there is a similiar item on that rack, they must take it whether it is their size or not. Many employees purchase common work boots rather than a specialized law enforcement type boot as the Department will not provide funds for the entire cost of the boots. Certain items of protective equipment, such as a vest, have to be fitted to the individual. However, there is currently a deputy who is wearing a previously owned vest that was not fitted to them. This is unacceptable! Looking at the employees of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department, I see all adults and no one who could not be trusted with the entire uniform maintenance allowance. Unless, again, the employee is an investigator and then the allowance is provided on a monthly basis. This benefit is provided not only for the purchase of replacement items, but for the maintenance (dry cleaning and laundry) of uniforms of the deputies. The correction of this benefit as it applies to the uniformed employees will be a prioity when I am elected as the Bureau County Sheriff.

The Character of Leadership

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:14:21 +0000

Growing up, I had the fortunate opportunity of being exceptionally close with my paternal grandfather. I also had the joy of discovering, as the years went by and I grew older, that the closeness we shared grew exponentially. My grandfather was a man who lived his life. That is to say, he was not confined to an office, or forced to experience the world through books or cinema. Rather, he was out in the world, experiencing life for himself. As I grew older, and my life experiences – and the capacity to understand those experiences – grew as well, it often became as though I were constantly meeting my grandfather for the first time, over and over again. I grew to understand him more, and I grew to understand the world more as a consequence.
My grandfather was born in Liverpool, Illinois. He left school after the eighth grade. He spent the entirety of his working life as a coal miner for Peabody, running a drag line. The only years he was absent from the strip mine were those years he spent chasing the Third Reich from the Normandy coast to its deathbed in Berlin. Having said all this, I can honestly tell you that my grandfather was one of the smartest men I had the extreme pleasure of knowing.
One of the innumerable joys of spending appreciable amounts of time with ones grandparents is that it affords you the unique opportunity to learn about your own parents. Some of this comes from direct stories, to be certain. From stories of my father I learned of how he was a dedicated student, how he worked at a filling station In Havana during his teen years. I heard of how he was devoted to his family. I heard of his years as a Boy Scout, and how even during those youthful years he was dedicated to duty and service. I heard stories from his mother, often told through wet eyes, of how he would not wait to be drafted for Vietnam service, but rather enlisted in the Marines. I can still see the set in his father’s jaw, some 35 years later, when he recalled that decision.
The real lessons came, however, when I paid more attention to what my grandfather said and did in his own life. It was his value set, his wisdom, his example that would tell me the most about my father. My grandfather’s values are what created the character of my own father, and it was through observing these that I learned the most about who my father is.
Two of my grandfather’s sayings have stuck with me more than others. The first is “If you do it right the first time, you won’t have to do it right the second time.” When I was young, I used to think that this was some type of non sequiter designed only to keep me busy doing yard work or some such labor. But as I grew older, I was able to see the simple truth behind it. It was years later, as an undergrad student at Western Illinois, that this saying would strike me again. In a rather reflective bit of classroom philosophical debate, the idea was advanced that, just because man cannot be a perfect being, this does not alleviate the moral responsibility to strive for perfection. The entirety of the classroom ceased to exist for one moment and I heard my grandfather say “If you do it right the first time, you won’t have to do it right the second time.” I could simultaneously see all the times my father had labored so much in his own life to make things right. I could see my father working tirelessly to ensure that things weren’t just ‘good enough’, but that they were ‘as good as they could possibly be.’
The second saying is “You can’t push a string.” As a ten year old, I thought that this was the most ridiculous thing anyone had ever said to me. Of course you can’t push a string. This statement, of course, refers to individual leadership. Now, this is something I have grown to learn a bit about. Leadership has been an area of continued interest for me, so much so that the material that I have written about it is taught at the Chicago Police Department to recruits, Field Training Officers, and new sergeants. This personal and professional interest I directly attribute to my father, and in fact these very documents were written with his consultation. This simple statement from my grandfather, however, has enabled me to understand from where my father learned his leadership principles. That simple statement, my father internalized and made part of himself, before polishing and incorporating it into his own career.
Here is the one thing I have learned about my father by spending time with his father: My father’s commitment to duty and service, and his dedication to leadership, are not things that he learned in his professional life. They are not the byproduct of a training seminar. They are not something he has cultivated for the sake of a political campaign. They are who he is, who he was born and raised to be. They are a part of his character.

This was written by my son, John, and I can not begin to describe the emotions I felt when I opened it.