Peter Joseph Coolidge: 2026 candidate for DuPage County sheriff

Bio

Office sought: DuPage County sheriff

City: West Chicago

Age: 54

Party: Democrat

Previous offices held: None

Q&A

Why are you running for this office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you? If so, what?

I'm running because I've spent nearly 30 years serving the people of DuPage County in the Sheriff's Office, and I've seen where trust between law enforcement and our community has eroded — and what it takes to rebuild it. I'm not a career politician. I'm a career law enforcement officer, and I believe this office needs someone who has actually done the job.

What motivates me most is restoring public trust through transparency, accountability, and fair enforcement of the law. That means care, not just custody — meeting people in crisis with real mental health support, not just handcuffs. It means supporting deputies with the mental health resources, staffing, and pay they need to do this demanding job well. It means trust, but verify — using technology like Flock cameras responsibly, with real oversight and accountability. It means following the law on immigration, not politics, so our department stays focused on public safety. And it means victims of crimes like domestic abuse are believed and supported from the first report through prosecution. I'm running to bring nearly three decades of experience to a role that needs steady, trustworthy leadership.”

What would you bring to the position and what would your priority be?

I bring nearly 30 years of hands-on experience in the DuPage County Sheriff's Office — I've worked in all three Bureaus: Law Enforcement, Courthouse, and Corrections. I know this department from the inside: how it operates, where it's strong, and where it needs to change. My opponent has never worked a day in the DuPage County Sheriff's Office. I also bring a commitment to building a strong management team around me, including a dedicated Finance Director to oversee a budget of more than $70 million with the discipline and transparency taxpayers deserve, and to holding everyone in the Sheriff's Office to the highest standards of conduct.

My top priority would be ensuring that everyone who lives or works in the diverse communities of DuPage County feels safe. That means real community engagement, not just enforcement — being present and building relationships in every community we serve. It means leading on gun violence prevention, enforcing the law consistently and fairly, and treating everyone who lives, works, or passes through DuPage with the respect for their constitutional rights. Great leaders build great teams, and that's the kind of Sheriff's Office I intend to lead.

What type of crime should be the sheriff office’s top target in the next few years? Please explain why. What steps will you take to address the priorities as you see them?

Preventing gun violence should be the Sheriff's Office's top target in the next few years. It touches nearly every other category of crime we respond to, and DuPage County isn't immune just because we're not Chicago — guns move across county and state lines, and the human cost when they end up in the wrong hands is devastating. As a gun owner myself, I know firsthand that responsible gun ownership and common-sense gun safety can go hand in hand — protecting rights and protecting lives aren't competing goals. The Sheriff's Department should be the model law enforcement agency in the county for programs that prevent gun violence.

My action plan is to: expand free gun-safety and safe-storage training, prevent children from accidentally accessing firearms, crack down on illegal gun trafficking and 3D-printed firearms, strengthen deputies' response to mental-health crises, protect domestic violence victims from armed abusers, and partner with schools and agencies countywide to prevent gun violence before it happens.

Describe your position on the allocation of resources in the sheriff'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?

Show me an organization's budget, and I'll show you its true priorities. Having worked in all three Bureaus, I've seen firsthand where our resources are stretched thin. Staffing is a real concern — we need competitive pay and mental health support to recruit and retain deputies, so workload doesn't fall unfairly on those who stay. I don't believe every dollar is currently allocated as effectively as it should be, which is why I'm proposing a dedicated Finance Director to bring real oversight and transparency to our more than $70 million budget — something this office has lacked.

Capital expenses like vehicles and facilities need to be planned for, not reactive. Contracted services also deserve scrutiny — technology like Flock cameras requires real oversight: trust, but verify. Every dollar spent must come with accountability for how it's used. I'd also prioritize funding for trauma-informed training and a dedicated Domestic and Sexual Assault Unit. My approach: bring in a strong management team, audit where resources actually go, and reallocate toward what keeps deputies and residents safest.

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.

The concrete program I'll create is the Domestic and Sexual Assault Team, or DSAT — a dedicated, trauma-informed unit built to respond to crimes like domestic abuse and sexual assault, and to enforce protections like Karina's Law. Survivors deserve investigators trained specifically to work with them, from the first report through prosecution, not a system that makes them retell their trauma to whoever happens to be available.

DSAT would be funded by reallocating existing personnel into specialized, trained roles rather than requesting new spending — pairing that with a dedicated Finance Director's oversight to find efficiencies elsewhere in our more than $70 million budget that can support specialized training.

The obstacle will be the natural resistance to restructuring how cases are currently handled. I'll overcome that by bringing deputies, prosecutors, and advocates to the table early, showing them how DSAT improves outcomes and case results — not just for survivors, but for the department's credibility with the communities it serves.