DuPage sheriff candidates debate courthouse staffing

DuPage County sheriff challenger Mike Quiroz says he would increase the number of patrol deputies countywide if he's elected.

But Sheriff John Zaruba calls his opponent's proposal to reduce the number of deputies working at the courthouse to beef up patrols "archaic, inefficient and expensive."

"You need professional court security deputy sheriffs," said Zaruba, who is facing Quiroz in the Feb. 2 Republican primary. "That's the nationwide trend to prevent what's happening in the country with judges getting killed and bombs being placed in courthouses."

Quiroz, a retired sheriff's deputy, insists DuPage doesn't need 74 deputies assigned to its Wheaton courthouse and four field courts. His plan calls for transferring some of those deputies out of the courthouse and replacing them with retired police officers.

The proposal, Quiroz claims, would save the county money because the retired police officers would receive a base salary that's half what the deputies receive. He said the retirees would be willing to take less pay as long as they could get health insurance through the county.

However, Zaruba said there wouldn't be any long-term savings for the county because of the high price of health insurance. More importantly, he said, overall security at the courthouse would suffer if any deputies were replaced with retired police officers.

With 5,000 to 8,000 people going through the courthouse daily, Zaruba said the building needs security personnel who are specially trained to handle everything from fights to bomb threats.

"We have incidents every single day in there - domestic violence, juvenile problems, gang violence and threats," he said. "You have to have people who know how to handle it."

But Quiroz says he would hire retired police officers with 20 and 30 years of experience.

"So these guys are going to be far superior in law enforcement background than the people that the sheriff has there currently," Quiroz said. "The standard certainly wouldn't go down if I put experienced police officers in there. Just because they're retired doesn't mean they're no longer thinking."

Still, Zaruba said he's spent the last 15 years honing security at the courthouse into a system that is nationally recognized.

"That's why you don't see headlines every day (about incidents at the courthouse)," he said. "Because we do it right."