Service to unincorporated areas an issue in Democratic primary for Kane County sheriff

Voters on Tuesday will choose between an undersheriff and a retired lieutenant to be the Democratic Party candidate for Kane County sheriff.

Undersheriff Amy Johnson and Salvador Rodriguez both want the nod.

The winner will face Republican Luis “Lou” Santoyo or Rob Russell in the November election.

Johnson has been undersheriff since October 2022. She started with the department as an intern in 2003, was hired as an evidence custodian and became a deputy in 2005.

Rodriguez retired in 2024, and now works for the Fox Valley Park District police force.

Both live in Sugar Grove.

Rodriguez said in a candidate questionnaire that he would have more deputies patrolling the unincorporated parts of the county and assisting small police departments, and perhaps less focus on task forces that operate in the county’s two largest cities, Aurora and Elgin.

“The number of deputies patrolling unincorporated Kane County today is the same as when I first started in 1995 — even though the unincorporated population has grown significantly since then. That is unacceptable,” he said.

Rodriguez said he would prioritize establishing substations, especially in the western areas of the county near Lily Lake, Burlington, Hampshire and Big Rock.

The sheriff currently has substations in western Aurora and at Elgin Community College.

“I would focus on refining deployment rather than making drastic changes. That means continuing to use data to adjust staffing by time of day and location, improving scheduling to reduce unnecessary overtime, and making sure supervisors have the flexibility to shift resources when patterns change,” Johnson said in her questionnaire.

Both spoke about the topic in a Daily Herald endorsement interview. Johnson said reducing deputies’ presence in the larger cities of Aurora and Elgin could hurt relationships with those police departments and investigations into drug and gun crimes.

Current Sheriff Ron Hain, a Democrat, did not seek reelection.

For more about Johnson’s and Rodriguez’s views and their backgrounds, you can watch the interview video at dailyherald.com.