Police Suspension Days: O'Dekirk & Clement Top the Charts

For those people who are following Mayor Bob O’Dekirk’s cronies at city hall on a cork board with thumbtacks and string, here an interesting perspective.

Now that O’Dekirk got his choice City Manager Jim Caparelli to gut the Joliet Police Department of any kind of leadership with a backbone, the city continues rolling out the red carpet for a few troublesome cops. There are three cases in the past six months that O’Dekirk’s administration significantly reduced discipline for officers, including City Council candidate Joe Clement. Read the most recent report here.

Clement is a “blue shirt” who got the cush detective assignment in the mayor’s office doing liquor license background checks. It was his well-developed observation skills that detected another police sergeant was drinking shots of tequila on duty, Clement said, when in truth the sergeant immediately tested 0.00 percent for drugs and alcohol in a hospital-administered blood test within 45 minutes of the accusation.

That landed Clement with 25 days suspension — which the city reimbursed $10,266 in an “amicable settlement” skirting the police and fire board review. Read that report here.

Well, 25 days suspension across a 27-year career may seem like peanuts, especially when compared to O’Dekirk’s 49 days suspension when he was a cop for only nine years.

Let’s take a look.

In a recent Patch.com report of the overwhelming police supervisors and past police chiefs’ support of City Council candidate Warren Dorris, there was a photo of eight cops standing with Dorris — mostly retired — all supervisors. See that report and photo here titled "Warren Dorris: 'The Support We're Getting is Pretty Phenomenal'."

Of the ten people in the photo, eight are current or retired Joliet cops with a combined 240 years on the job — averaging 30-year careers each. In total, those eight cops had 13 days suspension combined, averaging 1.625 suspension days each – less than two days a piece. In fact, more than half of them had zero days suspension their entire careers.

Now Clement is asking voters to put him on the Joliet City Council. Will Clement do O’Dekirk’s bidding?

Voters get to answer that $10,266 question.