Lake County sheriff’s deputies now have a “mandated duty to intervene” if they see another deputy using excessive force, the sheriff said Tuesday.
Sheriff John Idleburg announced the addition to the department’s use of force policy in a three-page letter to the public released Tuesday in response to the ongoing protests over George Floyd’s in-custody death in Minneapolis.
“Nobody is allowed to idly stand-by if there is a situation where excessive force is being used,” Idleburg said in the letter. “It is the philosophy of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to always use de-escalation skills and using force is only used as a last resort.”
The policy change puts into writing the approach Lake County deputies have always taken, said Mark Vice, the head union representative for the local Illinois Council of Police chapter.
“From what I’ve seen, there’s never been an issue with people covering up (for other deputies) or abusing their power,” said Vice, who also leads the Fraternal Order of Police Illinois Lodge 66, a nonprofit made up of current and retired Lake County law enforcement and members of the community.
Vice was behind the vote of no confidencein October 2018 regarding then-Sheriff Mark Curran, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate. The union had criticized Curran’s leadership, arguing that morale had progressively deteriorated since 2016 when Curran first took office.
It’s been a 180-degree flip since Curran left despite the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent unrest associated with Floyd’s death, Vice said.
“It puts pressure on all of us,” he said. “So many of us are great (officers) and we try to do things to help our communities. We are out there every day working with people on a human-to-human level.”
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It was the Floyd protests that triggered Idleburg’s public letter.
“There is nothing more resonating than thousands coming together peacefully, to express a message,” he said in the letter. “To the peaceful protesters: we see you, we hear you, and we understand you.”
Idleburg then went on to outline the steps he’s taken since becoming sheriff to improve transparency and accountability, including expanding the Office of Professional Standards, ensuring training is robust and purchasing new software aimed at identifying performance issues.
The Lake County chapter of Black Lives Matter has not received any complaints regarding Lake County deputies since Idleburg took over, said Clyde McLemore, the chapter’s founder and president. The chapter had received “many” under Curran’s administration, he said.
McLemore said Idleburg has made a lot of positive changes, but said he is concerned that a contract he had with the sheriff’s office to help Lake County inmates transition back into regular life was not being renewed.
McLemore touted the success of his program, which he said has seen only one client return to the jail out of the 135 with whom it has worked.
The sheriff’s office isn’t disputing the effectiveness of the program, which is something the department would consider bringing back should a grant application being pursued is successful, said Sgt. Christopher Covelli, the department’s spokesman.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is looking to make “significant cuts” – including dropping some other jail programming, as well as other spending outside of the jail – as the county copes with revenue lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Covelli said.
McLemore’s program was one of those eliminated because the pandemic also limited access to the jail, a restriction that impacted McLemore’s ability to work with inmates while they were still in the jail, Covelli said.