Mark C. Curran Jr.: Candidate Profile

Bio

Name: Mark C. Curran Jr.

City: Libertyville

Website: www.sheriffmarkcurran.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurranSheriff/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curranforsheriff/

Party: Republican

Office sought: Lake County Sheriff

Age: 55

Family: Married to Irene H. Curran almost 23 years. She is Greek Orthodox and a lawyer in Chicago. I have 3 boys, Mark III, George and Peter. Peter is in high school at Carmel and the other two are in college.

Occupation: Lake County Sheriff

Education: • Bachelor of Science, Business Administration — Spring Hill College, Mobile Alabama

• Juris Doctor — IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law

• Career Prosecutor Academy in Houston, Texas

• Suburban Law Enforcement Police Academy in DuPage County, Illinois

• Illinois Chiefs of Police First Time Chief's Conference

• National Sheriff's Association First Term Sheriff's Conference

• Senior Management Institute for Police, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts,

Session 60

• Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,

Session 390

• FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar (LEEDS), Session 76, Quantico,

Virginia

Civic involvement: I am active in the following community organizations:

• St. Joseph's Knights of Columbus

• Libertyville baseball, basketball and soccer coach

• Lake County Chiefs of Police

• Illinois Sheriff's Association

• National Sheriff's Association

• Major County Sheriff's Association

• Northern Illinois Crime Lab

• Lake County Major Crime Task Force

• Suburban Law Enforcement Academy

• ILEAS

• Lake County Bar Association

• Lake County Crime Stoppers

• Law Enforcement Aviation Coalition

• Archdiocese of Chicago Committee on Immigration

• Bibles, Badges and Business

• Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force

• National Immigration Forum

• Community Action Partnership

• Carmel Catholic High School Faith in Development

Elected offices held: Lake County Sheriff

Questions & Answers

Question 1: 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?

Since taking office in 2006, my main contributions include the following:

a. Lake County is safer and crime has steadily declined for several reasons:

1) A more professional office

2) We sought and achieved the following accreditations

a) Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) — known

as the gold-standard in policing — 2018

b) Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program (ILEAP) — 2018

c) American Correctional Association — 2012, 2014, 2016

d) National Commission on Correctional Healthcare — 2013, 2015, 2016

e) Prison Rape Elimination Act audit — 2015

f) Illinois Department of Corrections — 2006 to 2018 successful audit

3) Implementing policies and procedures for training, discipline and hiring, that led

to a more talented and diverse workforce.

4) Ensuring the office is under budget for 11 years.

5) Revamped Court Security to a full-time command staff and part-time retired law

enforcement staff, reducing costs and placing more full-time deputies on the

road.

6) Development of a School Safety Team (now Community Safety Team) to offer

guidance to schools, houses of worship and businesses in the development of

Emergency Operation Plans, ensure mandated school law enforcement drills and

provide A.L.I.C.E. Training.

7) Implementing CIT Training among sworn and unsworn law enforcement

personnel.

8) Implementing a countywide gang task force with federal, state and local partners

to share high-quality resources, reduce redundancies, and effectively mitigate the

growing number of gangs and gang-related activities including the illicit sale of

drugs, weapons and human trafficking.

Question 2: How can the number of jail inmates be reduced?

a. The LCSO is required to house inmates sentenced to jail or those who cannot make bond.

The Judge sentences an inmate or sets bond after listening to the recommendations of the lawyers. Thus, the jail population can only be reduced in working with the justice partners.

In 2013, we created the Lake County Sheriff's Community Policing Coordinating Counsel.

Members of the counsel include staff from the Lake County State's Attorney's Office, 19th Judicial Court, Probation, Public Defender's Office, Health Department, and local community service providers. The following collaborations were implemented:

1) Expand CIT Training throughout Lake County: When law enforcement officers are equipped to identify and de-escalate subjects in crisis, the subjects in crisis can be taken to a medical facility for the care they need.

2) Continue High Utilizer Program: High utilizers are individuals booked into the Jail 3-plus times within a 1-year period. Over the past year, jail staff and Nicasa worked closely to develop selection protocols and provide intensive case

management to inmates re-entering the community, with the assistance of a MacArthur-funded grant. The High Utilizer Program focused on 30 participants

and ends in September.

3) Working with justice partners to implement special early release courts.

Additionally, we are working with probation to speed up the pretrial bond assessment to better inform judges so they can be more confident when setting

bonds at the first appearance in bond court. This strategy reduces the need to put

people in jail for a few days until an assessment is attained.

Question 3: Are there nontraditional programs or initiatives you favor to advance the role of the office and/or engage citizens?

a. The implementation of social media allows greater real-time communication with the

public. In addition, online reporting forms with the ability to upload media are available to

the public and the public can choose to remain anonymous.

b. The Citizens Police Academy, Senior Advocate Program, Lake County Sheriff's Explorers and

Jail Volunteer program are programs that provide services and awareness to our

communities at no cost to taxpayers.

c. The creation of a Veteran's Ambassador Program helps our veterans in-need eradicate veteran homelessness. Under our program, deputies are trained to assist veterans in-need or in-crisis with services available through the Veterans Assistance Commission and Lovell Health Care Center.

d. Participation in the following civic organizations and events:

1. Lake County After School Coalition

2. Lake County Coalition to Reduce Recidivism

3. Lake County Crime Stoppers

4. Lake County Opioid Initiative

i. Naloxone training for all sworn personnel and corrections

officers

ii. Offering A Way Out program to users seeking treatment

5. Lake County Underage Drinking Taskforce

6. Mother's Trust

7. Nicasa

8. Mano a Mano

9. Frontline Intervention

10. Substance Abuse Prevention Taskfore

11. Zion Benton Character Ed

12. Stand Strong — Lincolnshire

13. Countywide township, senior and community events

14. Lake County Veterans Coat Drive

15. Special Olympics Illinois

16. Toys for Tots

17. Mary's Mission Annual Toy Giveaway

Question 4: The Lake County Sheriff's office has recently been featured on one national television show and plans to be featured on a second show in the near future. Do you believe such attention is beneficial to the office? Why or why not?

We are living in a country divided. Law enforcement is feared more and respected less in communities

throughout the United States. However, this is not the case in Lake County, IL. We have excellent

communications and that can be attributed to our transparency and community policing model.

Everywhere I go in the County, people want to talk about LIVE PD and the comments are positive. I jumped at the opportunity to feature our office on LIVE PD because I have great confidence in our office, thus it was a tremendous success.

I also continue to promote our office through LCTV Behind the Badge, Facebook Live, consistent and timely media releases, numerous cable programs and any other reasonable media request.

On September 18, 2018 Women on Patrol will air on Lifetime cable TV. I look forward to highlighting several of our female deputies. I worked hard to recruit and hire qualified female officers and this program will hopefully encourage other women to seek law enforcement careers.

Question 5: The Lake County Sheriff currently is subcontracted to provide police service for numerous communities, including Volo, Wadsworth, and others. Do you believe these contracts should continue in the future, or would you prefer to see these communities start providing their own police force? Why or why not

The seven communities the Lake County Sheriff's Office contracts with include the Villages of Beach Park, Deer Park, Lake Barrington, Long Grove, Mettawa, North Barrington and Volo. In addition, we provide services for unincorporated areas of Lake County as well as for municipalities without police departments including Green Oaks, Indian Creek, Third Lake and Wadsworth, for example.

I understand the fiscal challenge of operating a full-time police department for smaller municipalities.

It's expensive to provide 24/7 service, including payroll, benefits, pensions, etc., but we respect community choices. If a community chooses to contract with the Lake County Sheriff's Office, the services the municipalities would get if they contract with us instead of trying to create their own police department, including our Criminal Investigations Division (investigate sex, cyber, financial, gang crimes, and warrants to name a few), Major Crash Investigations,