Another Republican is entering the primary to replace retiring Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell.
Jason Buckley is currently the senior patrol lieutenant in the sheriff's office, supervising patrol deputies, the Peoria County Search and Rescue Team, and the office's DUI breath instruments.
Buckley said he has experience working with other government agencies and managing large groups of people, in part through leading searches for missing and endangered people in the Peoria area.
Buckley said he's had good role models, like retired Peoria County chief deputy Joe Needham.
"I've always had an interest in proactive policing, stopped a lot of cars, made a lot of arrests. And with that, there's an evolution of education that goes as to how enforcement's done, what is necessary, why it's necessary, what's too little, too much. You know, it's balanced, it's learned," he said.
Buckley said the City of Peoria in particular is seeing a high level of violent crime, and there's a need to counteract that.
"If you stay back and just watch what happens, sometimes it gets out of control or there's...it's more serious. There needs to be an active level of enforcement, or officers go out looking for traffic stops, looking for stuff, being active and going after that," he said.
But he said that needs to be balanced with community policing initiatives, including ideas from clergy, the community at large, and from within the sheriff's office.
"Pulling that together, and continuing that active approach is the way to handle and improve and reduce our high ranking," he said. "And there's also significantly with that, again, going through what my experience has been, a need to continue the high quality of training because the more training an officer can get on how to resolve a situation, the better that officer becomes, the lower the level of uses of force, the higher levels of compliance, and you blend it together. And it makes for a very good officer."
Buckley said he's on the same page with Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria when it comes to reducing violence within the city, as far as a need for both active enforcement and other initiatives. He said a Peoria County Sheriff's Office led by him would assist Peoria police.
"I know there's been past concerns about what our staffing levels or whatever, but I mean, the reality is, when the shootings continue (and) the serious violence continues, there is a need for interdepartmental cooperation," Buckley said. "And it would be a matter of balancing what I have available for resources, and what resources are available to be tasked or move towards that direction as to what I could commit to."
He also has ideas for more cooperation to bolster both agencies, such as additional training or K-9 units collaborations.
Buckley will face Peoria County Sheriff's Capt. Chris Watkins in the June GOP primary.
