Daily Herald opinion: What we have here … Issue separating Kane, Aurora police is more than just failure to communicate

Whatever the communication problems between the Kane County Sheriff’s Office and the Aurora Police Department, they will not be solved by political leaders trading blame and calling each other names.

No one should know the inherent shortcomings of responding to complex situations with blame from afar rather than with calm evaluation from the inside better than Sheriff Ron Hain and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin. As leaders of public agencies, they deal routinely with critics of policies or practices who may not know or appreciate the nuances of their work.

Yet, here we find the two still trading personal insults and attacks on each other’s institutions a year and a half after some sort of misunderstanding that ultimately led to the deaths of a crime suspect and the sheriff’s department police dog Hudson.

The issue involves a May 2023 case in which Kane County Sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrest James J. Moriarty, 38, of Aurora, while investigating a carjacking. During the course of the arrest, Moriarty and officers exchanged gunfire, and he and Hudson were killed. An investigation continues into the circumstances of the deaths.

In a Chicago Sun-Times story earlier this year, Hain criticized Aurora police, who had planned an operation the day before to arrest Moriarity on other charges. His comments led to an angry response from Irvin. Then last week, at a ceremony unveiling a monument to Hudson, Hain again complained of what he called a lack of communication between his office and the Aurora Police Department. That led to a new outburst from Irvin on Tuesday, blaming Hain’s handling of the Moriarty case for the tragedy that resulted.

It must first be noted that an honors ceremony for a fallen officer hardly seems the place to air grievances about institutional relationships between two police departments. That said, some sort of communications problems seem to exist between the agencies that need to be worked out.

In the Moriarty case, Irvin and Aurora police say they had identified the man as a suspect in various crimes and expected trouble in arresting him. He had vowed to induce police to kill him to avoid going back to prison, they said, so they had initiated a complex operation to lure him into an arrest, but were thwarted when sheriff’s deputies interrupted and towed his car. A day later, deputies stopped Moriarty while suspecting him of a carjacking, and the fatal exchange followed.

Aurora police say the deaths would have been avoided if the sheriff’s department had not interfered with their operation a day earlier. Hain has responded that he wasn’t aware of the scope of the Aurora plan. Therein, apparently, lies the nut of the “communications issues” plaguing the agencies.

For their part, Aurora police insist that cooperation between the two departments is just fine. Perhaps, in the time-honored tradition of street-level employees conducting their affairs quietly and effectively while their bosses squabble publicly, that is true. But bosses who use news conferences and public events to cast aspersions on each other and the agencies they supervise are hardly providing the kind of support and environment needed for their teams’ success.

Apparently, efforts have been made to mend fences between the officials and address whatever circumstances are interfering with effective cooperation between their agencies. Clearly, more are needed.

It’s important that all police agencies work together effectively. The public sniping that characterizes the departments’ interaction now surely is hurting more than helping — and the loss of Hudson, rather than serving as a launchpad for claims and counter claims, should be a warning of the potential result if they don't find a professional way to work things out.