A Will County sheriff’s deputy was recognized by the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists for making 122 DUI arrests in 2025, with the organization naming him Sheriff’s Enforcement Deputy of the Year.
Steven “Steve” Potete credits his working years after high school with giving him the foundation for what would become a specialization in accident reconstruction and a certain sensitivity in dealing with the public.
Potete said those situations can occur anywhere on the 872 square miles countywide, including Naperville, Braidwood, Crete and Beecher. But he said he “mostly sticks around the Joliet-New Lenox-Lockport-Plainfield area where it’s busier, especially weekend nights.”
Potete attended Victor J. Andrew and Carl Sandburg high schools, graduating in 1995. But it would be nearly seven years before he joined the Will County sheriff’s office.
“Right out of high school, I worked auto body, cutting cars in half till 2014,” he said. “That gave me a really good base of knowing what cars do in a collision and the reconstruction side of it.”
But an injury sidelined Potete, prompting him to try working security at a school and then working with autistic and other developmentally challenged children.
“Those roles taught me patience and how to communicate with children,” he said.
Potete is quick to credit Deputy Ryan Albin, his mentor and “the DUI go-to guy,” with guiding him through some of the finer points of law enforcement, particularly as they apply to intercepting drivers operating under the influence of alcohol or a drug.
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“You just gotta know how to talk to people,” Potete recalled Albin telling him. “You treat them with dignity and respect. But you’ve also gotta kind of read where they’re at; de-escalate the situation when necessary.”
Potete, whose credentials now include DUI instruction, traffic crash reconstructionist and lead homicide investigator, said he noticed people thanking Albin at the end of a traffic stop.
“He told me, ‘As you’re leaving their car window, I want them to thank you.’ He was just a great help and resource,” Potete said. “He lit the match under me.”
That is not to downplay the seriousness of impaired drivers. In a cruel irony, intoxicated motorists rarely are injured in crashes that injure or kill passengers and other motorists. In 2023, three people were injured in DUI-related crashes in Will County; in 2024, 14 were injured, two fatally; and in 2025 16 were injured, one fatally, according to the sheriff’s office.
Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley said DUI enforcement is a critical component of public safety and one of the most effective ways to prevent serious crashes, injuries and fatalities on roadways.
Potete joined the Will County sheriff’s auxiliary unit as a volunteer sworn officer in 2019. Two years later, in October 2021, two people were fatally shot at a Halloween party in Joliet Township attended by 200 people. Potete and a deputy “were one of the first ones on the scene.”
Potete told his wife, Leslie, he thought he’d found his calling, but knew she might worry about insecurity or the effect on their two kids, he said. She didn’t stand in the way.
“She allowed me to take this jump later in life. We took a financial hit to be doing this,” he said.
Potete was hired in January 2022 and allowed to train after successfully explaining away an embarrassing DUI conviction from his younger days.
“I had a great (field training officer). He was mostly by the book, strict and knowledgable. The shell answer man,” Potete recalled.
But he acknowledged his experience as an auxiliary officer led the seasoned deputies to treat him more like an experienced deputy than someone learning.
“I struggled extremely hard. I was bound and determined I was going to succeed,” he said.
Potete said he also “took classes in advanced roadside impairment driving enforcement. A lot more classes. And I started getting some DUIs under my belt.”
Now recognized as an expert in the seven general categories of intoxicants, Potete uses a 12-step process that establishes the kind of drug taken.
“I can go into court for any jurisdiction in Illinois and testify as an expert on what I observed,” he said.
Potete praises the Will County state’s attorney’s office’s approach to prosecuting DUIs, saying they do a great job, have clear rules and don’t plead down cases.
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But Kelley thinks the court system needs better collaboration between law enforcement, prosecutors and the judiciary. The sheriff said he would like to see more timely case resolution, with increased public education on the dangers and consequences of impaired driving to “help reduce repeat offenses while holding offenders accountable and improving safety throughout Will County.”
DUI arrests, once considered exclusively alcohol related, increasingly involve combinations such as prescription drugs and alcohol.
“A lot of people think because the drug is prescribed by a doctor that you can’t get a DUI,” Potete said. “But a person doesn’t need to be falling over to be impaired. Combine some prescribed drugs with alcohol and your reflexes are slowed down and your critical thinking is diminished.”
Cannabis is increasingly coming into play in DUI arrests, he said, noting it now ranks above alcohol and nicotine in regular use, according to self-reporting.
That concerns Potete. “I personally don’t think there’s enough education yet.”
Told about a DUI arrest that turned an injured Marine’s life around, Potete said, “It definitely can be life changing. I’ve been on both sides. I’m extremely empathetic. I am looking for impaired drivers, but I am not looking to make an arrest. I don’t run across that every stop and that’s not a bad thing.
“If I had to guess, 80% thank me.”
Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.