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Prairie Ridge’s Valerie Tarazi named Northwest Herald’s Girls Swimmer of the Year / C1-2 NWHerald.com
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Bianchi will not seek re-election County state’s attorney still must formally withdraw, set to help Kenneally in race By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi will not seek a fourth term in office and will withdraw from the race, he announced early Monday evening. In a brief statement, he said he made the decision “after deliberation and careful consideration of the personal and family issues
that have been a concern to me and my family.” “I am grateful for the understanding and compassion from my supporters, attorneys and members of our staff and investigators in the office of the State’s Attorney and the community during the recent weeks,” Bianchi, 72, wrote. Bianchi said he intends to serve the full remainder of his term, which expires Dec. 1 of next
year. He announced last week that he was considering dropping out of the race after one of his assistant state’s attorneys, Patrick Kenneally, also filed to run for the Republican nomination. Kenneally is Bianchi’s choice to succeed him – he faces a primary challenge from former Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Regna, who unsuccessfully ran against
Bianchi in 2008. Bianchi wrote that he intends to devote all of his free time to helping Kenneally get elected. “He is an experienced, proven prosecutor who is the most capable leader to continue the strong prosecutions and programs initiated by our office these past 11 years,” Bianchi wrote. Kenneally could not be reached for comment Monday evening. He
is expected to formally announce a run now that Bianchi is retiring – he had told the Northwest Herald that he would not run if Bianchi had decided to seek re-election. Regna said Bianchi still is in the race, as far as he is concerned, until he files the required paperwork to be removed from the ballot.
Lou Bianchi
See BIANCHI, page A4
Chicago police under scrutiny
AREA SCHOOLS, POLICE DEPARTMENTS COLLABORATE
Justice Department begins investigation By DON BABWIN and ERIC TUCKER The Associated Press
Photos by H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
ABOVE: McHenry West High School police resource officer Rick Rewiako stops by a classroom Nov. 30 while making his rounds on the campus. BELOW: Rewiako jokes with students during their study hall Nov. 30 at McHenry West High School.
Beyond patrolling the hallways
‘‘
Resource officers provide more than discipline
What it comes down to is common sense, for one, and No. 2, you have to understand the law as it pertains to juveniles, and three, there’s a code of ethics ... and you don’t engage in something that you think is wrong.” ”
By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com CARY – In his three years as the school resource officer at CaryGrove High School, Cary Police Officer Josh Victor typically sees only a handful of incidents each year in which he has to intervene in some way. When it has happened, it’s always been dealt with verbally. Other than breaking up a couple fights with students, he’s never had to physically restrain someone, Victor said. That’s part of how many school resource officers are trained, he said – to try to connect with students and to try not to get involved in incidents that fall under the disciplinary jurisdiction of the school and its administrators. “There’s nothing written in
Josh Victor, Cary police officer and school resource officer at Cary-Grove High School
stone,” Victor said. “But what it comes down to is common sense, for one, and No. 2, you have to understand the law as it pertains to juveniles, and three, there’s a code of ethics ... and you don’t engage in something that you think is wrong.” His explanation of the job comes about a month after former Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Fields in South Carolina was fired after he apparently flipped a dis-
ruptive student out of her desk and tossed her across a math class floor. Cary Police Chief Pat Finlon, whose department shares the cost of the officer with Community High School District 155 in a 45/55 split, said how involved an officer can or should get should be a collaborative decision between the district and police department. For him, an officer shouldn’t be someone who deals with school discipline.
Instead, he and other area police and school officials said schoolbased officers should fill a few separate roles: law enforcement, informal counseling and education. An officer from the local police department is a commonly used resource in high schools to deal with safety concerns and criminal activity, but situations of noncompliance and intervention, such as the one in
See OFFICERS, page A4
STATE
LOCAL NEWS
SPORTS
WHERE IT’S AT
Deal approved
Ballot objections
World athletes
Rauner OKs stopgap spending measure to aid local gov’ts / B3
Hopefuls for County Board, Ill. Senate, House to face challenges in primary / A3
McHenry gymnasts place at competition in Denmark / C2
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CHICAGO – Responding to deepening mistrust of one of the nation’s largest police forces, the federal government opened an investigation Monday into the Chicago Police Department, and authorities announced they would not charge an officer in the death of a 25-year-old black man who was shot in the back last year. The Justice Department investigation was to look into patterns of racial disparity in the use of force. It comes nearly two weeks after the release of a video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times. Lack of trust between police and their communities, “makes it more difficult to gain help within investigations, to encourage the victims and the witnesses of crime to speak up and to fulfill the most basic responsibilities of public-safety officials,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. “And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest.” The investigation, which is separate from an existing federal investigation into last year’s shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, also will review how the department disciplines officers and handles misconduct accusations. Justice Department officials said they use so-called patterns-and-practices probes to identify systemic failings in troubled police departments and to improve trust between police and the communities they serve. The civil rights investigation follows recent ones in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, and comes as the police department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are under intense scrutiny over their handling of the October 2014 death of McDonald. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder Nov. 24, more than a year after the killing and just hours before the release of police dashboard camera footage showing
See INVESTIGATION, page A4
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