Joliet Won't Buy Police Body Cameras, Why? Hervey Asks

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet squad car videotapes showing Eric Lurry dying on the Joliet Police Department property on Jan. 28 have sparked outrage and disgust by many members of Joliet's Black community. During the past few Joliet City Council meetings, there has been a large turnout of citizens demanding major reforms within the Joliet Police Department.

The Joliet Police Department is an agency that has problems with corruption, sexual misconduct, racism and off-duty drunken driving, according to Jerry Hervey, a Black resident of Joliet.

Hervey has been one of the most dynamic speakers at City Council meetings this summer. He has been a regular presence during the audience participation process these past several weeks.

At Tuesday night's meeting, Hervey had a lot on his mind. Here is a recap of the main points Hervey made during his four minutes he was allotted to address the council.

"The mayor does not control the police department," Hervey remarked, addressing his comments to fellow audience members. "Where's the chief of police? Because I asked for him two times. Where is the chief of police because the chief of police controls the police department ... You're all giving out money, but under his watch they're constantly costing us money and lawsuits.

"Nobody has said 'Defund the police department' ... Officer Doug May has had 17 complaints filed against him since 1999. One of them being for aggressive policing where he was written up by a supervisor and then a whole decade later he jumps right into the back of a squad car and slaps somebody and calls them a bitch. Where was the deterrent? Lt. Jeremy Harrison, God forbid, he would have ran into somebody that night he was drunk and killed somebody. Has he been held accountable?

"Get off the mayor, he is not the problem. The chief of police and the police are a problem. They cannot hold theirselves accountable. I want to see this City Council write a letter to the Department of Justice asking for a full investigation of the Joliet Police Department. Take out the part about Eric Lurry. Take out the part about the mayor. They got a laundry list of misconduct that's been stretching back for 10 years.

"Write them a letter saying I want the Joliet Police Department investigated because we do not have the tools and resources to do so, and we believe they are involved in misconduct, racism and a lot of sexual misconduct. Let's not forget about the DUIs and the constant drinking that we hear about. Get off of him and get on the problem. If you want to address the mayor, address him in the next election, but right now you need to get rid of the police chief and the amount of money they're making.

"How is it possible they make this amount of money and nobody says anything, but you constantly come up with them fake ass bills. OK, we want to charge the citizens this. We want to charge housing people this. We want to charge the landlords this but you still have not come up with a solution to buy police cameras? How?

"Sherri (Reardon) you ran for office and as soon as you get into office you come up with this plan to raise taxes on gas by 3 cents. But you still have not come up with a solution or a budget to get cameras, body cameras. What more reliable witness can you get than a camera? It will streamline the whole judicial process. I guarantee the district attorney will be glad you got them."

At that point, Hervey directed his comments to Councilwoman Bettye Gavin. She was one of the five council members who did not sign the mayor's letter asking Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to conduct an independent investigation into January's in-custody death of Lurry.

The others who did not sign the letter were Don "Duck" Dickinson, Pat Mudron, Mike Turk and Reardon.

Besides the mayor, Larry Hug, Terry Morris and Jan Quillman signed the letter.

"And then Bettye Gavin you sit up here and say let's hold these bad people accountable. Let's hold the wrongdoers accountable, but you're not even willing to hold the police force accountable because you keep stonewalling the mayor on the city manager. Everybody want to harp on the mayor, but we got five city council members that did not (sign) a letter into the investigation of Eric Lurry. Go to they house. Go to they house. Hold them accountable ... I know about donations. I know who's involved with who, who pays peoples salaries through donations. But yet still you're involved in ... decision-making with these people who got a vested interest in your vote. Come on, man, knock it off, I'm not going to keep coming in here dealing with you all, oh, we're working on reform. What reform? What reform have you worked on? What have you come up with?"

Hervey reminded Gavin that she told everyone several weeks ago that she is conducting her own investigation into the death of Lurry.

"What did you find out? Who did you talk to and what was the context of the conversation? You can answer that ... You're acting like a bunch of high school kids. I don't like this person, so I'm going to side with this person. Come on man, we got police officers making $150,000, a regular patrol officer, who is on leave, has she even been served, the lady involved in this DUI crash, has she even been served with a complaint from internal affairs?

"How is she sitting at home getting $3,500 every two weeks instead of burning her vacation time or whatever else she got? You need to defund the police department and make them give that money back in incentives and escalations. If you need to do an investigation, it needs to be done in 90 days."