Ron Hain: 2022 candidate for Kane County Sheriff
Bio
Party: Democrat
Office sought: Kane County Sheriff
City: Elburn
Age: 46
Occupation: Kane County Sheriff
Previous offices held: Kane County Sheriff since 2018
Q&A
Q: Why are you running for this office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you?
A: Based on strong leadership experience, great relations with our county board and other elected officers, and most importantly, powerful results from my first term, I am running to keep our mission going.
Q: If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of any important initiatives you've led.
A: We dropped our recidivism from a four year average of 49% to 18% ending in 2021. We cut the opioid overdose deaths of the formerly incarcerated by 89% each year.
Through our new jail programming we reduced jail violence by 35% and officer workmen's comp claims by 40%.
We also returned the county's electronic monitoring program at no extra cost to taxpayers and by diverting people from custody and the justice system, we have saved our citizens over $5M over the last four years.
For our law enforcement officers, while bringing crime down by 16%, we implemented a training program that places our officers and deputies through stress-induced and de-escalation training every month, which is far ahead of the curve.
Our deputies are better funded, policied, and trained than ever before, while coming in under budget every single year.
We were also able to implement our new radio system at no cost to Kane taxpayers and created our body camera program before it was mandated by state law.
Q: Are there enough deputies on the street and are they properly deployed? What changes would you make?
A: Yes, based on our approved staffing levels, I took the agency from 82 deputies when I took office to 93 deputies today. I am the first sheriff to set minimum patrol staffing levels to ensure officer and citizen safety, while providing specialty division deputies to accomplish the many duties the sheriff's office must provide, besides patrol.
Our new patrol format we implemented in early 2019 that has dramatically reduced response times by more than half is evidence that we are on the right path.
Q: What role should the sheriff's office play in dealing with the county's opioid crisis?
A: We have proven to be a lead in combating the opioid crisis through our correctional programming and the results they have yielded.
We also began the A Way Out program in 2019 to provide non-punitive engagement with the addicted and offer them immediate placement into treatment.
We have served over 70 people to-date. We also partnered with federal agencies on the police side to combat the influx of illicit substances onto our streets.
This work has reduced opioid-related deaths in Kane over the last four years, even during the pandemic, which very few counties in our country can claim.
Q: What is your stance on the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act?
A: I believe cashless bail, if done right, can be a good thing by keeping violent criminals in custody and eliminating the racial/socio-economic disparity that cash bail creates.
I think Illinois created this law too hastily and will release dangerous people into the community without many, if any, ramifications.
With that, we are currently working diligently to ensure that those people that will be released 1/1/23 are receiving our intensive correctional and re-entry services to ensure we are treating their addiction issues and providing them vocational training, along with job placement in effort to reduce resulting crime.
We are also working with our state's attorney to remand those violent felons who were able to post bond. I will continue to advocate for common sense trailer bills that correct the inadequacies of this legislation and engage law makers who will listen.