Cook County board approves creation of new Deputy Sheriff/Investigator position
A new role was created within the Sheriff’s department during the May 14 meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Sheriff Pat Eliasen spoke before the board to request the establishment of a Deputy Sheriff/Investigator role.
Eliasen told WTIP that the purpose of the new job would be two-fold. It would improve the continuity of investigations, and it would help fill current gaps in skills and expertise that exist within the department.
The sheriff explained that the current investigation system leaves room for issues to arise as a result of different deputies having a different take on a single investigation. Under the current system, when a deputy responds to a call, they open an investigation, if needed. If that deputy isn’t able to close the case before they have time off, or if their duty schedule changes, the case is reassigned to another deputy, in an effort to keep the investigation progressing.
Eliasen said that this can cause problems. “If it’s three deputies working the same case, you’re gonna get three different three different reports with the possibility of having three differing opinions or conclusions in those reports.” He said, “So then, when it’s handed off to the county attorney, they have to try to go through everything and decipher, you know, what the probable cause is, you know, what the facts of the case are, by taking three different reports and maybe six different statements taken by three different people.”
During the county board meeting, County Attorney Molly Hicken also weighed on what functions the role would serve. She said that an increasing number of cases rely on evidence gathered through social media or other digital sources. According to Hicken, requesting a warrant to search a suspect’s digital material is complicated. She said that mistakes are easy to make in those requests. Those mistakes can compromise evidence collected with that warrant, and potentially the whole case. She stressed the importance of someone within the sheriff’s department having the specialized skill for that type of investigating.
Eliasen said that the new Deputy Sheriff/Investigator would get the appropriate training in order to be a “subject matter expert.”
Additional trainings in the areas of completing search warrants for social media and investigating criminal sexual assault, child protection, or adult protection are all currently available for deputies. Eliasen said that some of the current deputies have pursued these trainings on their own. He went on the say he hopes to be ale to fill the new job from within his department, and that the deputy selected to become the investigator would need to become proficient in all of those areas.
He said, “Whoever we select to be in that position, we’re going to make sure that they attend all of those trainings, whether they’ve done it in the past or not.”
The county board approved the creation of the job in mid-May, and the position has been posted internally. However, Eliasen said that he doesn’t expect to have someone serving as Deputy Sheriff/Investigator before the fall. The department is working to fill two vacant patrol deputy positions. If a current deputy is selected to become the Deputy Sheriff/Investigator, that would create another vacant deputy spot to backfill. Eliasen also explained that the new role was already accounted for in the current budget. Money was earmarked for the position, but no formal job description had been created until now.
During the board meeting, several commissioners requested clarification about how this role would fit in with the existing deputy workflow. Commissioners Stacey Johnson and Deb White both critiqued the request itself, citing discrepancies they noted between the submitted request and what was discussed at the meeting. During the meeting Eliasen offered several corrections and updates to the initial request he had submitted to the board.
Johnson made a motion to delay a vote on the approval of the Deputy Sheriff/Investigator position in the interest of clear communication between county departments, the board, and the public. That motion failed 2-3, with White joining Johnson in support of delaying the vote. Other commissioners expressed that they were satisfied with the corrections made during the meeting, and ultimately, the board did end up voting to approve the new role. The motion to approve was made by Commissioner Dave Mills, and passed 4-1, with Johnson voting against approval.
WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Sheriff Pat Eliasen about the creation of a new Deputy Sheriff/Investigator position in his department. He also gave some summer safety reminders.
Kirsten Wisniewski May 29, 2024
