Peoria County Sheriff's Capt. Chris Watkins said he brings the experience needed to bolster the office's recruitment and retention efforts.
Watkins, a Republican and 18-year veteran of the sheriff's office, said building up the workforce is "kind of what I'm living right now," and would remain a top priority if he is elected.
"We're down police officers. We're down a lot of correctional officers. So I've been eating, sleeping, and just breathing, trying to get the recruitment level up," Watkins said. "It's a nationwide problem. I think everybody, not just police, we're going through this. But if we don't have the staff, we're forcing people (to work) some people 16 hours a day, and that translates into the service of the public's getting. And we want to get that staffing level up."
Watkins said part of the strategy is offering signing bonuses, particularly for lateral transfers from other departments. A transferring deputy is currently being offered a $15,000 signing bonus by Peoria County, and transferring correctional officers can receive a signing bonus of $10,000.
"That has brought some employees people in, but it's still not solving the problem," said Watkins. "So I'm almost have to take it as like a college sports recruiter mindset, where I need to get into the schools, and just let the youth know how honorable this profession is, and expose them to earlier and earlier."
Watkins said the sheriff's office has postponed its internship programs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said getting those back up and running will be key, as well as ramping up recruitment efforts at Illinois Central College and local high schools.
Watkins blames the passage of last year's SAFE-T criminal justice reform law for some of the challenges in law enforcement. He said he believes the law is driving many police to early retirement - including sheriffs.
"The bill is a massive bill. 60 to 70% of it is things that we're already doing. We've already had body cameras, mandating training, we've done a lot of that, but it's mandating a lot more, which is fine. We'll figure it out," he said. "But there's also some worries, like that no cash bail. That's, you know, we're seeing that another state's not working out very well. So we're very interested how this is gonna play out. Honestly, it could be a very big challenge for the community."
Watkins said he's concerned eliminating cash bail could stymie the re-entry programs championed by retiring Sheriff Brian Asbell, which he said he hopes to continue and expand if elected.
"These people won't get a timeout in jail where they need to," Watkins said. "If they're their substance abusers, those four days to two weeks that they're in jail, you know, give those guys a timeout, pretty much. If not, if they're released the next day, they're going to go back. They're going to whatever substance they're abusing; they're going to get that and they're going to keep doing these crimes over and over and over."
Citing his experience as a detective, Watkins said he believes a "timeout" in jail can cut down on crimes like burglaries and car break-ins committed by people experiencing substance abuse problems, and potentially save lives by reducing overdoses.
He said he worries that soon, the jail will become a revolving door for nonviolent offenders, and opportunities for re-entry work at the jail will be reduced as a result.
Watkins is currently the only declared candidate for the Peoria County Sheriff's race after Deputy Blaine Duhs dropped his Republican candidacy for the office and endorsed Watkins.
