DuPage waits on answer to stopping police ride-alongs
Fearing exposure to “substantial” financial liability, DuPage County Board members more than a month ago urged Sheriff John Zaruba to temporarily discontinue a program that allowed his teenage son to take repeated police ride-alongs.
They still are waiting for Zaruba to respond.
“I have been told that he's not going to stop the ride-along program,” county board Chairman Dan Cronin said.
Cronin and 13 board members signed an April 27 letter to Zaruba requesting that he halt the program until it could be reviewed to “determine the level of liability associated with it.”
The letter was sent after the Better Government Association and WBBM Channel 2 released a video showing the sheriff's son, Patrick Zaruba, leaving a squad car on April 23, 2011 to chase a fleeing suspect on foot.
After the suspect got away, the then-18-year-old Patrick later appeared in uniform with his father and other deputies as they sought to question the suspect at his Woodridge home, the BGA reported.
“This is a financial concern because the county board would have to find taxpayer dollars from our general fund to cover any type of liability that would be associated with a teenager attempting to fulfill any part of the role of a sworn sheriff's deputy,” board members wrote in the letter to Zaruba.
The 13 county board members who signed the document are: William Bedrossian, John Curran, Grant Eckhoff, Paul Fichtner, James Healy, Brian Krajewski, Robert Larsen, Michael Ledonne, Patrick O'Shea, Donald Puchalski, Jeffrey Redick, James Zay and John Zediker.
When asked about the status of the ride-along program on Thursday morning, a sheriff's spokeswoman said she would look into it. She is yet to respond with an answer.
Meanwhile, BGA President Andy Shaw said the county board's request is reasonable.
“The sheriff works for the taxpayers of DuPage County, and he owes them an explanation,” Shaw said Friday. “He apparently feels that he is not accountable.”
The BGA report acknowledged that many police departments operate ride-along programs in which members of the media, aspiring police officers and other interested parties can accompany on-duty officers to get a feel for real-life law enforcement.
However, the BGA cited experts who questioned the liability concerns and potential risks to officers if an observer is permitted to participate in police activities.
“No one is saying that the ride-along program has to be disbanded entirely,” Shaw said. “But it was clearly being abused.
“You raise serious liability questions when you allow an unauthorized teenager to chase suspects in criminal situations,” Shaw said.
Cronin said he agrees that what happened with the sheriff's ride-along program is “alarming” because of the potential exposure for the county.
“Ultimately, it's our responsibility to pay those bills or to meet those legal obligations,” he said.
But Cronin acknowledges the board can't force Zaruba to discontinue the ride-along program because he's an independently elected official.
Nevertheless, Fichtner said board members will continue to seek some action from Zaruba.
Fichtner, chairman of the county board's finance committee, said that he and Cronin are planning to meet on Tuesday with Zaruba to discuss a variety of issues. The ride-along program will be near the top of the list, Fichtner said.
“I'm presuming he's going to have a response at that meeting,” he said.