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Health & Fitness

Sheriff mistakenly releases criminal, leading to felony assault against girlfriend; CC needs Jail reform and technology NOW

You may have read or heard in the news this week that the Cook County Sheriff’s Department accidentally let another criminal out of the Jail resulting in an innocent person getting hurt.  Sheriff’s Department leaders did nothing to fix the mistake and prevent any harm until after this person committed two very serious crimes. We are very fortunate that no one was killed in this battery case, and my thoughts go out to the victim.

The Sheriff’s spokesman told the Tribune about the incident last week that “it’s no excuse at all. This is human error. It’s regrettable … and it’s unacceptable.”  This is really insulting and “unacceptable” to be putting any blame on “human error” in this context when officers and employees do not have the right and necessary tools for their job; especially when other news stories reported this week that the Jail population is at its highest capacity in six years with well over 10,000 inmates, each at a cost of almost $150 per day leading to annual budgeted Jail costs of over $300 million, not including $100s of millions more for dealing with overcrowding at Cook County Jail and renting space in other jails across Illinois!

It’s simple to do the math yourself and see the expensive mess we are in, yet we are not doing a thing to fix these problems. The current Sheriff has been in office for eight years and prior to being elected, he was the Chief of Staff. In all this time, he has made zero effort to upgrade and modernize the Jail systems to track inmates’ records and release statuses. In fact, officers are still reading carbon-copy paperwork about inmates all across the jail and courts system.

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For years, election politics in Cook County has crippled the law enforcement community ever since the current elected Sheriff walked into his $175,000 salary with zero law enforcement experience (and zero common sense). Such people should not be working in jobs that they are not qualified for, and it’s up the public and voters like you to hold them accountable and responsible.

As sheriff, I will keep our community safe and our officers well-equipped to avoid these very expensive and harmful mistakes.  It’s the year 2013 and it’s time to invest in solutions like efficient computer systems that would help officers access vital information about what is happening at their jobs and at the jail in real time. A simple electronic monitoring system is neither expensive to purchase nor impossible to implement, and such investments would keep us safer and save us money almost immediately in the future.

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We cannot cheap out on safety and we cannot sell out law enforcement to politics. Our security should not be a political issue, but it is obvious that the current Sheriff has not improved or learned from all of his inaction and mistakes — mistakes that are costing us taxpayers millions of dollars, and mistakes that unfortunately are causing innocent victims to suffer. Let’s hope no one else gets hurt, because the current Sheriff does not know how to be a real leader and do his job right.

About Ted Palka, Democrat for Cook County Sheriff 2014:

With 30 years of proven law enforcement experience as an Inspector in the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Ted Palka is the most-qualified candidate for the prestigious position of Cook County Sheriff in 2014. With your vote on March 18, 2014, we can work together and make Cook County a safer and an even greater place to live, work, and play.

For more information, visit the website [http://PalkaForSheriff2014.com] and like the Facebook page [http://facebook.com/VoteTedPalka].

Read more:

“Man mistakenly released from jail beat girlfriend while free, authorities say” Gorner, Jeremy. Chicago Tribune.  August 21, 2013. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-man-mistakenly-released-from-cook-county-jail-beat-girlfriend-while-free-authorities-say-20130820,0,1728295.story

“Cook County Jail population at highest level in 6 years.” WLS-TV ABC 7 Chicago. August 20, 2013. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=9213504&rss=rss-wls-article-9213504


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