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Kankakee Daily Journal - Kanka
13 December 2007

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Local cops react to the Peters

A corrupt cop is every honest cop's worst nightmare.

"Any cop who screws up, it embarrasses all of us," Bradley Police Chief Don Kufner said.

"You're painted with the same brush," echoed Bradley Deputy Chief Steve Coy.

"We're judged by one," said Chief Deputy Ken McCabe of the Kankakee County Sheriff's Police. "If you have one person doing the wrong thing, it reflects on all of us."

That is why local police officers, just like their brethren in blue across the country, are warily watching the scandal surrounding Drew Peterson. A veteran cop, Peterson resigned from the Bolingbrook Police Department last month as the search for his wife, Stacy Peterson, made headlines. Peterson, 53, is a suspect in the woman's October disappearance.

Peterson is also being investigated in connection to the mysterious 2004 death of his ex-wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in a bathtub. Her death was ruled accidental at that time. He is also being investigated for official misconduct for running background checks on Stacy Peterson's acquaintances.

Whatever the outcome of the Peterson investigations, his case has sullied the reputation of Bolingbrook police and law enforcement in general. The public is questioning the trustworthiness of police, especially in situations when police are investigating a fellow officer.

"Law enforcement is under the microscope today," said Coy, who works on Bradley's internal affairs investigations.

And even in the best of times, officers must be held to a higher standard of conduct than the general public, according to local police.

"You're a role model," Kufner said.

"He takes an oath of office so he's held to a higher standard, but he's still entitled to his Constitutional rights," Coy said of police officers who come under investigation.

Ford County Sheriff Mark Doran agrees police must adhere to tougher standards. "We have the courts to figure out whether we're right or wrong in our split-second decisions, but your personal life also follows you and I think we should be held to a higher standard," Doran said.

For that reason, agencies such as the Iroquois County Sheriff's Police teach officers how to cope with job pressures that can lead to behavior problems.

"There's a lot of stress in the police world, and you do tend to take things home with you ... because your actions affect people's lives and that's something you don't take lightly," said Sheriff Eldon Sprau, who holds stress-management classes and in other ways tries "to be involved with our officers and their families."

Public mistrust

Mistrust and skepticism on the public's part is also fueled by the corruption and cover-ups portrayed in cop television shows.

"It's the public's perception that police officers will cover up for their fellow officers. In reality, it's the exact opposite," according to Kufner. "We don't want dirty cops giving us a bad reputation."

Grundy County Sheriff Terry Marketti agrees the public continues to believe that cops cover up for other cops.

"I just don't believe that's the case in this day and age. I think it was years ago," said Marketti, noting that the cost of covering up police wrongdoing is significant and potentially career ending.

Do police officers sweep wrongdoing under the rug when investigating one of their own?

McCabe said it can happen, "but that will always come back and bite you." He believes that police agencies must thoroughly investigate allegations of police misconduct for the public's sake and for the integrity of their department.

In police departments across Illinois, an internal affairs probe into criminal accusations usually results in that police agency calling in an outside department, usually the state police, to help investigate. And evidence of criminal wrongdoing gathered in an internal affairs investigation is handed over to prosecutors for charges, local police said.

"There's no gray area there," McCabe said. "If you break the law, we're going to send it to the state's attorney to be charged."

In recent times, officers from Kankakee, Bradley, Hopkins Park and the Kankakee County Sheriff's Police, as well as county jail guards and Illinois State Police, have all been accused or convicted of crimes.

A joint investigation by Bradley and state police led to the resignation earlier this year of Bradley Officer Corey Norton, who faces multiple felony charges for allegedly sexually abusing an underage girl while he was off duty.

Deputy Jason Yeates was a recent example of a Kankakee County officer facing criminal charges. Yeates, who resigned, pleaded guilty to theft this year after stealing money from a convicted drug dealer he had arrested for a minor offense.

"The police are no different than anyone else. We're susceptible to the same kind of ills that can befall any other person," McCabe said. "We're human beings."

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Kankakee Daily Journal - Kanka13 December 2007

Local cops react to the Peters

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Kankakee Daily Journal - Kanka
13 December 2007