Lake County Deputy Rebecca Loeb Heads To 'Live PD' Studio

BUFFALO GROVE, IL — Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Rebecca Loeb brought her signature pink handcuffs, legal and law enforcement expertise to the broadcast studio in an appearance as a guest analyst on A&E's "Live PD" in New York.

Loeb has developed a nationwide fan base ever since the 27-year-old cop and trained lawyer started appearing on live broadcasts of the cable documentary series. The Lake County Sheriff's Office and about a half dozen other law enforcement agencies participate in the show, which airs live between 8-10 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays.

How did she end patrolling unincorporated Lake County with a law degree? Turns out it was a combination of a promise to her late father, made during his two-year battle with cancer, and a chance run-in with the sheriff at the scene of a residential burglary.

The Buffalo Grove native is an alumna of Stevenson High School (Class of 2008), The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Libertyville Police Department – where she worked overnight shifts while wrapping up her degree before passing the Illinois Bar Exam last year.

"I would bring my books and study when we had downtime at work. It was a struggle" to take three or four classes at once, while also working the beat from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. "I slept probably four hours a day. It was rough, but it was worth it," she told Patch.

"My dad was really big on education, he grew up in Brooklyn in a pretty poor neighborhood and he went on to get his PhD," Loeb said.

Her father, Dr. Jerod Loeb, was an accomplished healthcare expert and Buffalo Grove Police and Fire Commissioner. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer right before she graduated college, she recalled.

"So I promised him when he got really sick that I would finish law school, and that was the main reason that I did finish," Loeb said. Two months after he passed away, she got her first job as a cop.

Starting the summer before law school, Loeb clerked for the gang unit of the Cook County state's attorney's office prosecuting gang homicides. She found the experience valuable, but that was when she realized law enforcement was her true calling.

"It was the best of the best prosecuting the worst of the worst," she said. It has helped her build strong cases that make it through the court system without getting dropped. "I like being a police officer way better because I get to deal with things before they reach their prosecution point. When we were getting cases in the gang unit by the time they get to trial it could be six, seven, eight years down the road from the actual crime."

Then one day in 2015, she happened to respond to a burglary at the home of one of Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran's neighbors.

"I grabbed one of my firearms and went over also, she went through the house and I took the back, just to make sure," Curran told Patch. Afterwards they got to chatting and the sheriff learned they had attended the same law school.

"Well, we'd love to have you join us," he remembers telling her. "She's just an amazing person. She has great passion and people identify with her personality, how she's able to de-escalate situations so well and she's so confident without feeling he has to scream or anything like that. "

Feedback to the show has been overwhelmingly positive, Curran said.

"This furthers our desire of being a transparent agency," he said. "We're out there. People get to see what we do, they're able to develop an opinion regarding the Sheriff's Office."

Loeb says her favorite part of the job is that every day is different. She doesn't rule out being an attorney someday but just not right now.

"I would do this job for free," she told A&E. "There's no other job where you can have this much fun. I don't want to be a lawyer anytime soon."

Loeb told the Lake County News-Sun she has been getting recognized off duty, sometimes by little girls who come up to her and say she inspired them to realize they could be police officers. And at 5 foot, 4 inches tall and 100 pounds, she described herself as "living proof that the smallest girl can be a cop," in an interview with A&E.

_{Top photo: Dep. Rebecca Loeb | Lake County Sheriff's Office}