Lost trials, exodus at endorsement's heart
As previously indicated in our endorsement letter dated Aug. 23, the Crystal Lake Police Officer's Association has endorsed Dan Regna for McHenry County state's attorney in the February 2008 Republican primary election.
However, our organization has strong concerns regarding the characterization of our endorsement as well as detail contained in our endorsement that was omitted from the news articles.
In particular, two critical issues concern our organization under the current leadership. A significant number of felony trials have been lost (jury trials resulting in not guilty verdicts) over the past three years and numerous dedicated and experienced career prosecutors have voluntarily left the office of the state's attorney.
One such example is a woman about whom the Daily Herald published an article on Nov. 12, Anne Brophy. I had the pleasure of working with Brophy while serving with the Illinois State Police narcotics unit for several years. She is one of the most dedicated, knowledgeable and articulate assistant state's attorneys I have worked with in my 15 years of law enforcement.
Brophy is just one of several examples of previous prosecutors who are no longer serving with the state's attorney's office. With them went institutional knowledge derived from several years of experience.
I also want to be clear that in no way is our organization attempting to demean in any way the hard working men and women currently serving in the state's attorney's office. In any organization, the leadership must be held responsible when concerns are present regarding the effectiveness of the organization.
Furthermore, I was shocked and bewildered at Bianchi's dismissive attitude of our endorsement as well as five other agencies when he was quoted as saying, "He's only got six of the 25 or so police departments in this county."
The men and women of our organization are dedicated, hard-working police officers who work for the largest municipal police department in McHenry County.
Our organization represents officers through collective bargaining below the rank of sergeant, which accounts for approximately 30 percent of the department. Most of the smaller police agencies within the county are not represented by an organized bargaining unit so most are prohibited by individual agency policy from publicly engaging in political issues.
To my knowledge, I know of approximately 12 organized police unions within the county. The fact that Regna was publicly endorsed by approximately half of them illustrates the current dissatisfaction with the state's attorney. Not one police union has yet publicly endorsed Bianchi as of this date.
I was also surprised at Bianchi's inaccurate and unsupported claims that many of the police chiefs in McHenry County support him. We are aware that municipal police chiefs are largely prohibited from issuing public political endorsements while acting in their official capacities. Furthermore, our organization is not aware of any police chiefs publicly endorsing him.
Our members are greatly dissatisfied with the support provided to law enforcement by the state's attorney's office as evidenced by the substance of our endorsement letter.
Ronald W. Joseph
President
Crystal Lake Police
Officer Association