'A tremendous obligation': Being Lake County sheriff no easy task for Buncich successor
Post-Tribune
September 08, 2017
chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-lake-county-sheriff-duties-st-0910-20170908-story.html
While the sheriff is billed as the top law enforcement position in the county, the legally obligated duties that come with the job tend to be more overreaching and administrative than rough-and-tumble police work.
Whoever is selected as the next Lake County sheriff Sept. 16 will be tasked with these duties. A handful of people have announced they wanted the job after former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich was found guilty on all counts at his federal public corruption trial last month. With his conviction, Buncich forfeited his office, according to state law. He's set to be sentenced Dec. 6.
While former Lake County Chief of Police Dennis Matthew Eaton took over as sheriff in the meantime, the county's Democratic precinct committeemen will choose a new sheriff to serve until Buncich's term ends Jan. 1, 2019, at a Sept. 16 caucus.
The person selected will face "a tremendous obligation" with the responsibilities of the job, Councilman Eldon Strong, R-Crown Point, said.
"Once you take that position of sheriff, now you're overseeing the law enforcement duties for the county," Strong said. "You have to maintain the jail, in our case. And these are all very, very expensive obligations, and you have to maintain them."
Porter County Sheriff David Reynolds, now in his third term, thinks "everyone has a different style or a different approach" to the job.
"I've learned that you're as effective as the people that you have around you," Reynolds said.
Even with a good team, "the buck stops with the sheriff," Strong said, and a state statute outlines what a sheriff must fulfill.
According to a statute in Indiana code, the sheriff must "suppress breaches of the peace," "pursue and jail felons" and "take care of the county jail and the prisoners there."
As of Thursday, the Lake County Jail had 816 inmates, according to Mark Back, sheriff's department spokesman. Earlier this year, Buncich estimated that 2,100 to 2,300 meals a day are served at the jail.
The sheriff has to keep records of everyone there. A sheriff has to file a weekly report of each person held, a biannual report on the daily cost of housing inmates and an annual report on the jail's condition and recommended improvements, according to the statute.
Buncich was tasked with making changes to the jail after it came under U.S. Department of Justice oversight. In June, Buncich said that while much had been accomplished, the jail remains under the DOJ's watch as mental health care improvements continue.
In his term, Buncich met with the Lake County Council as they approved medical contracts for the jail and paid vendors to keep the inmates fed.
Strong said it's important for any incoming sheriff to have good communication with the council and other county officials and a "willingness to work with us."
The council began reviewing the 2018 budget Wednesday, as Eaton appeared before the council to address the needs of the sheriff's department. It's "a huge responsibility" for the sheriff, Strong said, as the sheriff's department gets a large chunk of the budget.
"He's the guy that comes to us and tells us what he needs. Not the police chief. Not the detective chief. Not the warden," Strong said.
Under that budget, the sheriff has myriad other tasks to address, including overseeing the Lake County Sheriff's Animal Control and Adoption Center. Since a May raid, Buncich worked with the center to house 68 dogs, three goats and a miniature horse from an alleged illegal puppy mill.
The sheriff's department said those running the jail and animal center would not comment on what they hope for from a new sheriff to help their departments "at risk of the perception of bias towards one candidate over another," according to Back.
The sheriff also provides security of the county's courts, Reynolds said. In Lake County, that includes courts in Crown Point, Hammond, Gary and East Chicago.
In the department, the sheriff oversees 157 merit police officers and 517 total employees, as of Friday, Back said. An orientation is scheduled this month to hire more officers who will work under the sheriff.
Together, the state's sheriffs maintain the Indiana sex and violent offender registry website "to inform the general public about the identity, location and appearance of every sex or violent offender," updating it daily, according to the statute. Nearly 600 people were registered in Lake County on the site Friday.
The statute also states that the sheriff supervises and inspects "all pawnbrokers, vendors, junkshop keepers, cartment, expressmen, dealers in secondhand merchandise, intelligence offices and auctions" in the county.
And "once you become sheriff, you become a political figure," Strong said. Buncich served as the chairman of the Lake County Democratic Committee before Jim Wieser took over the role earlier this year.
The next person to take over these roles will be selected at the caucus 10 a.m. Sept. 16 in the Syd Garner Auditorium at the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point. People have until 10 a.m. Wednesday to announce their candidacy.
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