Kane state's attorney to lead statewide best practices committee
Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon will lead a committee charged with recommending best practices for investigations and evidence collection to be used by prosecutors and police departments across the state.
The committee is a first for Illinois, and was established by an act passed by the General Assembly and will operate out of the Illinois State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutors Office.
"The goal really is to re-emphasize what our responsibility is in all criminal cases," McMahon said Wednesday. "That's to get it right the first time."
McMahon said he wants to focus on ethics, suspect interviews and evidence collected, such as social media postings, surveillance video, pings from cellphone towers, and even DNA swabs, which is "drastically different" today than it was 10 and 20 years ago.
Another area McMahon wants to look at is lineups of suspects after a crime. Some larger departments can have a "live" lineup of suspects as seen in movies and TV, but most present photos of suspect to a victim for identification.
How photos are shown - either all at once, one at a time, and by an officer not involved in the case - makes a difference, McMahon said.
"There's momentum to develop best practices in criminal prosecution," he added. "Wrongful convictions have been an issue in this state and other states. This is an opportunity to focus and move forward and offer some leadership in this area."
McMahon said the committee can be a sounding board for new legislation considered by the General Assembly.
"The key really is to have flexibility. If it's a legislative mandate, those tend to be one size fits all," McMahon said. "We are on the front lines. We are essentially the consumer of criminal investigations. When investigations go wrong, we deal with those consequences. When they go well, we see the benefit."
McMahon said the committee has been well received by prosecutors in the suburbs and in rural areas.
The state's committee was inspired by a model in the state of New York by the Bureau of Justice Administration.
The committee will have an initial meeting in October.
State Sen. Karen McConnaughay, a former Kane County Board chairman, sponsored the bill that established the committee and said McMahon is a good fit for the committee.
"It's time that our criminal justice policy be based on something more than a shocking headline, a bad case result, or feel-good reform that isn't grounded in science and real world experience," McConnaughay said in a news statement.