Eric Rinehart: 2024 candidate for Lake County state’s attorney

Bio

Party: Democrat

Office Sought: Lake County state’s attorney

City: Highland Park

Age: 48

Occupation: Attorney

Previous offices held: Lake County State's Attorney since 2020

Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election for the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you? If so, what?

In 2020, it was time for a change. To continue to reduce crime now, and decades into the future, it takes urgency, innovation, and courage. As a father, nothing is more important to me than a child’s safety. Each victim we lift up is someone’s daughter, son, sister, brother, mother, father, friend, or loved one. In the courthouse, we are winning more trials than ever and investing more resources in victim support. Besides achieving justice in the courthouse, we must also engage in strategic planning around prevention in order to stop crime in the first place.

This strategy is working, and violent crime is down at a steeper rate than the nation. Homicides in 2023, were the lowest since 2018. These successes come from the courage to build new programs (see below). The world will keep changing, and we cannot go back.

With this in mind, I will continue to bring courage and innovation to curbing gun violence and protecting privacy rights — including a woman’s right to reproductive choices.

If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of any important initiatives you've led. If you are a challenger, what would you bring to the board and what would your priority be?

Violent crime is down because we created the first ever Violent Crime Unit, because we are preventing dangerous offenders from using cash to bond out of jail, and because we are investing millions in the first Gun Violence Prevention Initiative in Lake County’s history.

In 2021, we secured a federal grant to upgrade our internal forensic lab that analyzes cellphones and laptops. This improvement led to higher clearance rates. With our police partners, we have increased our “solve” rate from 50% to over 70% on murders.

In 2022, we secured a federal grant to start a Human Trafficking Prosecution Task Force. Nationwide, six such grants were awarded. We have also built the first Financial Crimes Unit, which focuses on corruption and identity theft.

Strong internal improvements include placing more women in leadership than ever before, raising prosecutor salaries, installing a new docketing system, ending a culture of wrongful convictions, and breaking the backlog in cases after COVID.

What crime should be the office’s top target? Drugs? Gang violence? Child sex abuse? Something else? Why? What steps will you take to address the priorities as you see them?

This is a complex question. Tackling all violent and sexual crimes is critical. However, prioritizing the prosecution and prevention of domestic violence will lead to numerous prevention paths regarding other violent and nonviolent crimes.

Domestic violence affects all demographics and socioeconomic groups, rippling across generations and communities. Since 2021, we vastly increased the number of domestic violence prosecutors and victim counselors.

In 2023, we filed more domestic violence charges than ever. It is good when filings go up for underreported crimes. By ending cash bail, we stopped abusers from using cash to be released and then hurting survivors again.

For this reason, every victim rights group supported this reform. We also partnered with the North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic to provide more legal services to victims. This work has been recognized, and I have been named to the Honorary Board for A Safe Place and the Attorney General’s Violent Crimes Advisory Committee.

Describe your position regarding the allocation of resources in the state's attorney's office. Are personnel allocated as they should be? Are there capital expenses or other budgetary items that the office must address, and, if so, how do you propose to address them?

In 2020, I pointed out that Lake County, despite its resources, has led all collar counties in violent crime for at least 15 years. A new approach was needed.

We have earned millions in outside funds to address: violent crime, sex crimes, and the opioid crisis. Data has been critical to these grants and these investments.

Recently, I initiated the formation of a new statewide data task force. Accurate crime data is critical in this polarized political environment to overcome misinformation (e.g., the debate over bail reform).

Using data arguments, we have won grants for violence prevention, and shootings are down 40% in the most impacted areas. We continue to invest in our sex crimes unit and Children’s Advocacy Center — the best in the state.

As a result, Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault incidents have plummeted. Before the end of cash bail, 32% of these sex offenders were released, and 70% of child pornographers were released with cash. Now, 100% of these offenders are detained.

Name one concrete program you’ll create or personnel move you’ll make to improve efficiency in the office or make it more successful. Explain how it will be funded and how you will overcome any obstacles to initiating it.

I have been honored to be a member of the Lake County Opioid Initiative Executive Board since 2020. Since the opioid crisis hit Lake County in 2017, fewer people have applied to be police officers — greatly reducing resources.

Upon taking office, we instituted a new protocol to support law enforcement in their overdose investigations. We have also conducted numerous law enforcement trainings and joined with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to make sure that local officers have the tools they need to analyze crime scenes upon the discovery of fatality.

This year, we requested funding from the county board to hire a new Drug Induced Homicide Investigator to coordinate training and usage of our cyberlab after such a fatality.

By adding an experienced investigator, we will supplement our local partners and ensure that we find the drug dealers who are poisoning Lake County residents. If the county board does not directly fund this position, we should use opioid settlement dollars.