Sheriff Candidates on the Trail

Last night it was Democratic candidate Dustin Heuerman at the Champaign Public Library talking to Moms Demand Action. Today it is Republican candidate Allen Jones in a podcast interview with the News-Gazette's Mary Schenk in "Legally Speaking." Here's a brief overview of both (click here to jump to the Jones interview).

Heuerman as Guest Speaker

At the library Heuerman noted that there's no incumbent in this years election and that he believes this gives his campaign a stronger path to victory than previous races. He gave an overview of his education in criminology and law enforcement experience (more details on his campaign website's about page here). He highlighted his LGBT status and promised to increase diversity and thus increase equality in the Sheriff's Office. He pointed to his own experiences there as a deputy as part of the reasons behind his passion to change the current status quo there.

He talked about mending the community-police relationship and used his own mixed family as why he's personally invested in making sure that everyone who interacts with the police is treated fairly, especially in the current cultural environment. He wants to upgrade the quality of the jail, not just for safety, but if the jails are unsafe that could open the office to lawsuits and taxpayer liability when inmates will inevitably sue.

He called for a stronger focus on ethics and administration that encourages more effective law enforcement. He said that we absolutely have to address the violence we're seeing now, but also work with other agencies and the community to prevent the issues that lead to future gun violence and crime. He highlighted mentorship, programs and collaborations involved in the Champaign Community Coalition (Cheat Sheet post on the Coalition here) where he sees a lot of shared ideas.

He closed his pitch by posing the question to the audience if they believed anything was really going to change with another Republican in charge.


Jones Interview

In the News-Gazette podcast interview, Allen highlighted Champaign's awarded status as an "innovator county" on mental health and criminal justice issues as well as his role on those issues within the Sheriff's Office over his career. The News-Gazette had an excerpt on their website here:

What's the idea behind Stepping Up, the 2015 national collaboration between justice and mental-health officials?

(It's) to try to reduce the prevalence of the mentally ill in jail and reduce the length of time they are there.

We received a federal grant at the same time. The Champaign County Board and the Mental Health Board signed on. Since 2015, I've received training and had opportunities to go to the White House on data-driven justice analysis, looking for ways to divert the mentally ill (from the justice system), sharing information, looking at the best diversionary practices.

Champaign County has been recognized as an innovator county, one of 10 counties across the country that have actually started implementing these changes and are being recognized for these changes.

So what have you achieved?

When we received the federal grant, we had a local group of people from Rosecrance, the Mental Health Board, the hospitals, probation, the state's attorney, and citizens from the community who went about trying to determine what services we have in the community. (It's called) system-intercept mapping: Identifying what's there and what's not there. We've completed that process.

What did you learn?

We realized we're missing in a couple places. We really need to have some stronger or more proficient services prior to or at the point of police contact in the community, and having any and all services available where families don't have to call the police is really the desired outcome.

The full interview is available here.