Kane County Sheriff Details Use-Of-Force Policy, Backs Reform

KANE COUNTY, IL – Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain on Tuesday issued a lengthy statement outlining his office’s use-of-force policy and deputies’ roles at protests over the past two weeks. Hain also pointed to measures he has supported to reduce the county’s jail population as demonstrations continue across America two weeks after George Floyd’s death. Floyd died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes while arresting him.

The Kane County Sheriff’s use-of-force policy bans deputies from using chokeholds or applying force on a person’s neck or head during an arrest, Hain said in the statement.

The policy explicitly outlines more than a dozen factors to determine what level of force is “reasonable,” including how immediate and severe a threat is to deputies; how the person being confronted is acting; the risk of injury to deputies and others; and the number of deputies involved.

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All incidents involving deputies using force are reviewed by the Kane County Sheriff’s Office’s Office of Professional Standards, Hain said. Deputies have a “duty to intercede” if they see other deputies using unreasonable force, the policy states.

Kane County deputies were sent to protests throughout the area to serve in a variety of roles, including crowd control, patrol and as a special weapons and tactics team, Hain said in the statement.

Deputies supported local police officers on May 31 as they fired tear gas at protesters in downtown Aurora. Hain said officers responded after being “pelted with bricks, rocks, frozen water bottles,” adding police vehicles were shot at during the night.

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The sheriff’s office did not respond Tuesday to Patch’s request for information about Office of Professional Standards reviews of use-of-force incidents in Aurora or other local protests.

After a week filled with peaceful protests throughout the country, Hain pledged his “commitment to work toward a unified criminal justice system in response to the many issues we currently experience."

“Respect is earned, not given,” Hain said. “While clearly the men and women of our local police agencies are more than worthy of respect and trust, we are all grouped in one uniform with Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.”

Chauvin was charged with second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in connection with Floyd’s death. Three other fired Minneapolis police officers — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — are charged with aiding and abetting in Floyd’s death.

Hain said he has worked to reduce the black population at the Kane County Adult Justice Center since taking office in 2019. At times in the past two years, black people have accounted for more than 40 percent of all inmates, despite representing less than 6 percent of Kane County’s population. The figure now stands at 33 percent after many people were released due to health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic, Hain said.

He called on prosecutors and judges to give people a chance to be productive in their communities by reducing bond amounts and sentences. Hain also urged officers to lead initiatives to provide employment, mental health and addiction support to people “inside the jail and out in the community.”

“We do all of this work in the interest of our fellow man. Regardless of skin color,” Hain said in the statement. “We do all this work to gain respect and trust and truly protect and serve. We do all of this work, so that these fine officers and deputies will never have to stand on a skirmish line in their own community again because the public would know we are worlds apart from Officer Chauvin in Minneapolis.”