[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:02] The State's Attorney of Cook County, the Annabelle Edlingberg.
[0:07] Good afternoon, all.
[0:10] Thank you, Chairman Daley, Vice Chairman Lowry, County Board.
[0:14] Seated up here with me as somebody who may be familiar to many of you, John Hur ahead.
[0:19] He was one of my first recruits to the new administration as our CFO.
[0:24] So, first, let me start with basics. Cook County State's Attorney's Office budget for fiscal year 25 is
[0:30] $221.3 million of that.
[0:43] Of that $158.3 million is derived from the general funds with the remainder coming from special
[0:49] purpose funds and grants, including approximately 11.3 from the federal government that I am
[0:57] of course concerned about in our current political environment.
[1:00] Our actual general fund spend at mid-year is $75.8 million with projected full-year spending roughly 2.5% ahead of our budget of figure.
[1:12] In terms of budgetive positions, we are operating with 130 vacant positions, 10.1% of 1278 general fund positions at mid-year.
[1:23] We inherited a budget with built-in turnover rate of 8.25%, which is much higher than the historically
[1:31] appropriate rate of 3% for this office.
[1:34] This reduced funding for salaries in this fiscal year by $6.7 million, which has meant
[1:40] we are not keeping up with attrition at this time.
[1:44] I will say that we have been working closely with the budget office to manage our hiring needs
[1:49] under this budget and on August 11th, we are bringing on 45 new bar takers. Our fiscal year 26 budget
[1:57] request is based on a return to a 3% turnover rate. So four priorities in the office since I entered
[2:05] the office last December, we have been systematically working through them. First and foremost,
[2:12] the gun violence that continues to plague our communities is our top priority. Over the last several
[2:17] years we've seen an explosion of mass shootings. We were seeing numbers that were unparalleled
[2:24] and were significantly higher than any other major city. While all cities saw an increase in
[2:31] gun crime during the pandemic, all other comparable cities saw their numbers retreat to pre-pandemic
[2:37] numbers. Chicago's did not. Last summer we were seeing a mass shooting on a regular basis.
[2:43] One of the causes of this increase was the increase in machine gun conversion devices, which are called MCDs.
[2:52] When a gun is modified with a switch, there are also called switches, it allows the gun to fire nearly 30 rounds in a second.
[3:03] It is truly a terrifying thing to watch.
[3:06] It also makes the gun very difficult to control when a gun is equipped with one of these switches.
[3:15] It just sprays bullets.
[3:17] That is why we're seeing people who have nothing to do with disputes getting swept up in gunfire.
[3:24] These are a scale model of an MCD.
[3:27] These are actual MCD devices.
[3:30] They look like a toy.
[3:31] They look like a Lego.
[3:33] They're plastic.
[3:34] It takes 10 seconds to take a gun and pop one of these things in and convert it to a machine gun.
[3:43] These can be made with a 3D printer in less than an hour.
[3:48] We cannot stop the flow of these and this is what is causing the ravages in gun violence.
[3:57] A day one we introduced a policy seeking that our prosecutors seek pre-trial detention for
[4:05] all detainable cases where a defendant possessed an MCD, a machine gun, an extended
[4:11] drum magazine or a ghost gun.
[4:13] In June our office hosted a national summit on the MCDs where prosecutors law enforcement
[4:19] personnel and lawmakers from across the country came together to strategize on how to address
[4:26] prevalence of these devices. Every major city is confronting this issue. We're going to continue
[4:33] to collaborate because no office has all the answers, but together we're going to start asking
[4:39] the right questions. We'll continue to work closely with our federal and state partners on
[4:44] illegal gun issues, especially CPD in the ATF. The CJIC or the Gun Crimes Intelligence Center in
[4:51] of Chicago has brought together stakeholders
[4:53] from across the region to focus on this issue.
[4:58] It's making a real difference.
[4:59] The Cook County State's Attorney's Office
[5:01] established our own gun crime strategy unit
[5:04] funded in part with our performance.
[5:07] We embedded both states attorneys and investigators
[5:10] over in C.J. and if I could talk for a moment
[5:14] about why C.J. is so important to us.
[5:17] They have technology where they can take a shell
[5:20] from that has been expended from a bullet at a crime scene
[5:24] and they put it into a machine called a night in machine.
[5:27] It will then tell them exactly where that gun has been utilized all over.
[5:34] It could be linked to 20 different crimes.
[5:37] Seeking detention and jail time is only one tool.
[5:41] And our office has robust alternatives to press,
[5:44] prosecution programs in place.
[5:46] There are 29 different alternative prosecution programs
[5:49] including Drug Treatment Court, Veteran's Treatment Court, Mental Health Court, Seeds
[5:55] Court, and several others.
[5:57] In May, we championed a bill in Springfield, which was passed unanimously, which streamlines
[6:03] the process for individuals who successfully completed diversion program to receive a
[6:08] void guard, a fire owner's identification card, and come into compliance with the law.
[6:14] This is a nuanced approach to gun crime.
[6:16] We treat MCDs, assault weapons very differently than we treat a class for regulation issue.
[6:25] Every person in Illinois has the right to have a firearm if they have the appropriate licensing
[6:31] of fire owners identification card.
[6:35] We have also taken a look at the issue of juvenile crime.
[6:40] We have all seen and heard about the rise in juvenile violent crime.
[6:43] We have seen some juveniles picking up multiple car jackings, multiple armarovaries, but we also know the harm that comes from incarcerating juveniles.
[6:52] We have developed a pilot program for juveniles that we are hopeful will bear fruit and will be able to be scaled countywide.
[6:59] wide. We have partnered with scrubble public schools and two community service providers in
[7:04] Wondale and Little Village. In lieu of detention, the young person will attend choose to change
[7:10] a CPS program which brings them into a lunch room setting where they give them a better lunch than
[7:17] is in normally available in the cafeteria. They give them some way or pizza and they also do cognitive
[7:24] behavioral therapy with them. They have seen their absentee rates drop significantly of kids who are
[7:30] involved in CPSs choose to change program. They don't call it cognitive behavioral therapy.
[7:37] They call it games or fun or whatever and it actually works. The vast majority of juveniles are
[7:44] arrested between 330 and 10 o'clock at night. This pilot program will address that, not just for
[7:51] school hours. A large component of this program is learning enrichment, job training, but also
[7:59] cognitive, behavioral therapy, not just for the juvenile but for their families. I think we can
[8:04] all recognize it. If a child is sticking a gun in someone's face repeatedly to commit our
[8:10] robbery or car jacking, that's something is going on with them psychologically. So, either we
[8:16] address it now when they are juveniles or we can continue to do what we have been doing and
[8:21] waiting them and tell we encountered them in the adult system. I'm not willing to do that.
[8:27] So we are actively seeking funding for this program and we have partnered with the University of
[8:34] Chicago to measure whether this program is a success or not. So when we initially started collaborating
[8:41] in figuring out what this program is and how we're going to measure the success of it.
[8:46] My view was, well, is there re-arrest rate less than other children similarly situated
[8:52] charged with similar crimes? If it's less, it's a success. But our juvenile prosecutors knew
[8:59] better than I did. They said, no, that's not the only measure of success. Are they having a better
[9:05] time and school. Are there relationships improving? Is there behavior problems decreasing? Those
[9:13] are all measures of success as well. So we are anxious to get this project off the ground and
[9:19] to start measuring whether it works. Just last week we discussed the crisis of domestic violence
[9:25] and I won't revisit that too much today other than to again acknowledge the efforts of Commissioner
[9:35] and see cancers. Through our new special victims bureau and our aspirational goal of establishing
[9:41] vertical prosecution for all of these cases we are focused on the survivors and holding
[9:46] those who abuse their partners or those who commit sexual violence accountable. Our third
[9:53] priority has been training. We hired a curriculum director on day one and we are training daily.
[9:59] We have already rolled out more than two dozen trainings. Some that the entire office must
[10:05] complete in a lunch and learn format and others
[10:07] that are specifically directed to their area of law.
[10:11] The goal is to have the best training ground
[10:14] for lawyers in this country.
[10:16] We are starting a class of 45 bartakers this August.
[10:19] This is the largest class that we have had in several years.
[10:22] We are having them all go through bartaker boot camp in August
[10:26] so that they can and will be able to hit the ground running.
[10:31] As far as 26 budget is as we begin to look ahead
[10:34] next year's budget I want you to know that we will continue to focus on these things as our priorities
[10:39] because they are the fundamentals to public safety and I believe we are having a real impact
[10:45] in a short amount of time. Looking forward we must work to modernize the office. I know many of you have
[10:52] heard me beat this dream about a case management system. It's difficult to overstate how necessary
[10:58] this is and how impactful it will be for the office, but it would alleviate so many of the issues
[11:04] we're facing today. From attorney and staff utilization to record keeping to data analysis and transparency.
[11:13] We currently have prosecutors tracking their work on Excel spreadsheets. This is the equivalent to
[11:18] giving them an abacus and some providers. As I've said time and time again, I want to know what
[11:25] what we're doing is making a difference if it's working.
[11:28] And if it's not, I want to know so that we can pivot
[11:31] and try something else.
[11:33] I do not want the numbers to tell me what I want to hear.
[11:37] Only a true case management system
[11:39] can give us that level of capability and confidence.
[11:43] We need more manpower at all levels of the office.
[11:47] Attrition has taken a very real toll over the past several years.
[11:51] the mass exodus has slowed, but we are in a hole right now. And the estimate needing to higher
[11:58] around 150 attorneys in 2026 just to stay ahead of it. Let me be clear, however, the goal is not
[12:06] to maintain the status quo. The goal is to grow and thrive and be effective.
[12:13] On that note, I would be remiss not to mention our glaring lack of forensic capability.
[12:19] We are the second largest prosecutors office in this country and the most complex, because
[12:26] the largest prosecutors office, the office of Los Angeles, rarely touch civil cases, whereas
[12:33] we have an entire bureau dedicated to civil practice, which touches on every single unit
[12:39] of county government.
[12:40] We also serve as the chief lawyer for Cacaoney.
[12:44] We are the only major cities prosecutor to office without a forensic unit.
[12:49] Instead of a unit, we employ a single scientist. She's wonderful by the way, but this is not a
[12:55] job per cell practitioner. Crime has changed. Everything has a forensic component. They can get DNA
[13:04] off of bullet shell casings. Sexual assault prosecutions require DNA evidence. Ballistics can
[13:12] established where else that gun was used. The technology available is the best evidence. We need
[13:20] to be ready to present that evidence. Everything is on video now. You can complete an entire trial
[13:27] without presenting a single live witness. That means we need the capability to present that video
[13:34] evidence. Cellphones can indicate exactly where someone is at a given time. We need this technology
[13:42] to be able to establish our cases. All of this requires a forensic capability that we are lacking
[13:49] and that is unacceptable. I can give you a very vivid example of this. Currently, the Cook County
[13:55] State's turn is off as storing $195,000 of video. All of Netflix contains roughly 37,000 hours
[14:07] of video. That's shocking for somebody who likes Netflix, obtaining tracking, storing and producing
[14:15] this information at the right time is a mammoth project and one we need as soon as possible.
[14:22] When I took on this job, I knew that the state's attorney's office had serious problems. That's
[14:27] why I got into this. This is what I found. I found people all over the office attorneys, investigators,
[14:33] admins victim witness personnel who were dedicated to the mission on the office.
[14:39] People who were dedicated to helping victims.
[14:43] People who understood the gravity of the responsibility that we carried to uphold the law
[14:48] not just for the victim, but for each and every person in that courtroom, including the defendant.
[14:55] I'm incredibly proud of this team, and I know that fully resorts there is no
[15:03] I want to thank the committee's time and I look forward to working with you all to adequately fund this office. I'm happy to take your questions. Last week I was speaking to a group of law enforcement officers and I said fire away. Don't ever say that to a group of armed men.
[15:25] Thank you for your presentation and I mean in the short period of time I want to
[15:31] convince you for the excellent job. You're doing the individuals who are your
[15:36] prosecutors and your entire staff. I know you mentioned two requests the case
[15:41] management and the forensic team. So hopefully we could discuss this as we go
[15:46] forward as well as I know you two a week ago it was adhering to the criminal
[15:51] just just, and I would like your quote and I know the commission, for who conducted the meeting,
[15:59] we look forward to working to see if any changes are needed and I sprint through it that we will
[16:04] hope forward it.
[16:05] Mr. Gainer.
[16:06] Thanks very much.
[16:07] I appreciate it being here.
[16:09] Picking up on the note that the Chairman brought up around last week's domestic volunteering.
[16:13] So there's two issues that arose, and we're, you know, look, I always try to focus on what
[16:20] the things that we can actually do with the county to move the ball forward. Two of them
[16:24] that arose, we chatted about a brief thing with the sheriff and just would like your thoughts
[16:27] and whether or not this is something you think you could support. One is on the FOID card issue,
[16:32] so I know that you have phenomenal staff actually hired from the sheriff's office that is now
[16:36] over with you on this issue of FOID cards. But if someone, if something happens such that someone
[16:43] loses their FOID card, any number, a range of things, none of them good, there is often the
[16:49] follow-up to actually make sure that the guns are retrieved as hard and difficult and needs
[16:55] to be better.
[16:56] One of the things that I raised yesterday and with the sheriff was, what if if someone gets
[17:04] their Ford car revoked and they get notification of that, they obviously have to go forth
[17:07] and either turn in the guns or sort that they don't have them.
[17:10] If that does not happen, why would we not want to preclude their ability to either renew their
[17:19] does exist, and so, you know, we assume this may take a change in Springfield, but
[17:26] what you're supporting with that, for that would be.
[17:29] So, there's a bunch of different statues that allow for that.
[17:34] So, for example, somebody's driving on a suspended license, or there's a
[17:38] barrier of things, and they have to clear that up before they can go ahead and get a
[17:42] driver's license. It's a lever, and it's a lever to force compliance, and
[17:47] and sometimes, especially with firearms,
[17:50] we need as many levers as we can in order to get complaints.
[17:53] If somebody has shown their danger,
[17:55] we absolutely have to pull every single lever
[17:57] we can to get the firearm out of their hands.
[18:00] OK, good.
[18:00] So that's something we like to go to Springfield
[18:02] within the second is, when we talked about the service
[18:04] of orders of protection, there's obviously
[18:08] a number that's issued, and a smaller number
[18:10] that's actually gets successfully served.
[18:12] The discussion of whether or not you
[18:13] could serve in order electronically was raised.
[18:16] The sheriff indicated that some of the advocates had pushed back, so they didn't further pursue it.
[18:21] My thought is that why wouldn't you ask the victim whether or not they were open to having it served electronically or not and let that be up to them.
[18:30] But that also seems to require a change in Springfield.
[18:33] But the cooperation of all of our elected officials that have to do law enforcement is important.
[18:39] So before we would move any further, is that something that you think makes sensors?
[18:42] I would have to look at the legislation on that because I do have some concerns about due
[18:47] process and and those are very contentious issues.
[18:52] A order of protection is an extremely contentious issue and the last thing we want is if it's
[18:59] a service issue is jurisdictional.
[19:01] So let's say you go ahead and you get a judgment and everything you know it goes up on a peel.
[19:06] It's everything you do is un-wound if jurisdiction is not correct.
[19:10] So I didn't have to take a look at the legislation.
[19:13] Then your feedback would really help.
[19:15] And lastly, just to tuck in a little bit more
[19:18] that you, you've obviously leaned in hard
[19:21] on addressing the lake with bonds when you really appreciate that,
[19:23] especially the machine gun conversion device that you mentioned.
[19:27] We've seen how that, I mean, just in New York yesterday,
[19:30] I mean, that this is a constant issue that
[19:32] it creates such devastation in communities, especially here.
[19:35] Can you talk a little bit more how you've really leaned in
[19:39] and gone after them?
[19:39] because I think that it's helpful for us to understand
[19:42] what can actually be done.
[19:44] So when you do this, to a guy,
[19:47] I really can't emphasize this enough.
[19:49] They're spraying 100 bullets at once.
[19:53] So we, during this machine gun conversion device summit,
[19:56] we actually went into a firing range.
[19:59] And we saw first and not a semi-onmatic weapon being fired
[20:03] and it was one, two, three, four, five.
[20:05] 10 seconds later, they pop one of these little toy
[20:09] things in there, and it fires like crazy, but the interesting thing was the target, when
[20:18] it was a semi-automatic, it was Bulls Eye Bulls Eye Bulls Eye. A trained firearm expert
[20:24] in a firing range with one of these MCD devices. The target was all over. It wasn't just on
[20:33] this sheet, it was all over the room.
[20:36] Think about a 15-year-old in a car that's moving
[20:40] with that same type of weapon.
[20:42] I cannot emphasize enough how deadly these weapons are.
[20:48] And because they're so ubiquitous,
[20:51] let's say, in some magic world,
[20:53] we prohibited this from being printed on a 3D printer.
[20:56] Let's say, somehow we wave to one, and we could do that.
[21:00] They are also coming in from China.
[21:03] We saw the packaging from China and it looks like an erector set and it has a little toy car that you build with the erector set and you open up the box and it's 150 machine gun conversion devices.
[21:16] We cannot stop the flow of these.
[21:19] So the lever that we have to push is make it uncomfortable for people to be holding them.
[21:25] That's why we're asking for detention.
[21:27] And that's why we're asking for jail time because it's the only lever available to us.
[21:40] Thank you, Chairman.
[21:41] It's a turning bird, great seeing you.
[21:43] Great seeing you.
[21:43] In your team.
[21:44] You noted it, but I missed it.
[21:46] What's the attrition number?
[21:48] A rate.
[21:49] Eight points.
[21:49] It is.
[21:50] Eight points.
[21:51] So, Commissioner John Hurren, Chief Financial Officer, the turnover rate for this year was
[21:56] eight and a quarter percent.
[21:58] The attrition rate, meaning the number of people who, especially assays who are leaving
[22:03] in the office is a little over 11%.
[22:06] And John, you've been here.
[22:08] How does that correlate to previous years?
[22:10] Is that an uptake?
[22:12] Is that about average where we would that?
[22:15] So we look back at a couple years data,
[22:17] and it has gone down slightly since the new administration took
[22:21] office, but it is still considerably higher than we've seen
[22:25] in other offices and agencies.
[22:28] So as the state attorney said, we don't have the resources right
[22:32] to keep up with that attrition rate and state attorney you've already noted that at a minimum
[22:39] 150 attorneys are needed and that's why 2026 are you also relying on the services of
[22:45] paralegals as we've seen over the years where are you with that? So paralegals are a very very useful
[22:53] personnel to have. However, they can only do about 10% of what we need them to do in a courtroom.
[23:00] We need ASAs in the courtroom who can step up in front of the bench.
[23:04] The secondary problem with the paralegos is the pay scale for paralegos that we have a significantly less than the public defender's office.
[23:12] So what we've seen is when we do get paralegos, we train them for a year and then they go to the public defender's office.
[23:19] What the public defenders are paying their paralegos is equivalent to what our first ASAs are making.
[23:26] So we cannot compete with public defenders in any way shape or form with paralegals.
[23:33] Right now our personnel needs our assays in the courtroom.
[23:37] We are on a skeleton crew in the courtroom.
[23:40] We have 20 misdemeanor calls that have one attorney.
[23:44] We have several felony courtrooms that have two attorneys in there.
[23:48] That's not functioning.
[23:49] That is not a inefficient use of our personnel.
[23:52] So, I love paralegals, I'd love to have more paralegals, but right now, our priority has to be ASA's.
[23:59] And I know that, given that, you've really fostered relationships with law schools, and the like, would you or someone speak to that?
[24:08] So, 7-Eleven's are, is under Supreme Court Rule 7-Eleven Law Students can come into our office and work with us as clerks.
[24:17] And over the last few years, they created a paid program of 7-11's, and we have all of those,
[24:23] but we have also reopened the pipeline for 7-11's to come and work with us for class credit.
[24:31] And so now we have a very open pipeline that has always been our main recruiting tool for
[24:38] new ASAs. It's a tryout. They come, they see if this is something they want to do, and we also
[24:44] get to see if there are good fit. The 7 and 11 program is a live and well, and we're going to continue
[24:50] to bring as many lost students in this possible. I think that's a great initiative and partnership.
[24:57] I want to drill down a little bit on the new forensic unit. I mean, this is exciting, and I've heard
[25:01] some, I've received some information about this from Anna and other members of the team.
[25:07] if you just drill down a little bit and really share with us the benefits of having this unit and
[25:14] to the extent there's data that we have from maybe other counties of jurisdictions where you
[25:18] have such a unit that would be interesting for us as we try to determine the efficacy of such a resource.
[25:25] So the forensics unit will be a hub. It will be a hub not just for the felony trial division but also
[25:30] special pros and juvenile.
[25:32] Anytime you need blistics or DNA evidence,
[25:36] that will come from this forensic unit hub.
[25:39] So we will have ASAs who are certified in blistics.
[25:43] They understand that technology that will also have an ASA
[25:47] who understands DNA.
[25:49] We have one scientist, I'd like to get another scientist.
[25:53] Scientists can interpret what that is,
[25:56] but we need those ASAs to be able to put it in a form
[25:59] that a jury could understand.
[26:01] We need ASAs who can go out and help people all over the system
[26:06] in presenting that type of information.
[26:09] It's a specialty.
[26:10] It's not something that people would just know how to do.
[26:14] You're a lawyer, you know how to do it.
[26:15] That's not how it works.
[26:17] So that's one component of the forensics unit.
[26:19] The second component of the forensics unit
[26:21] is a digital forensics lab.
[26:25] So we can take a phone, for instance,
[26:27] I call it a cell phone dump.
[26:29] It is an enormous amount of information
[26:33] that we have our investigators working on now,
[26:35] but we do not have the technology that we need.
[26:38] That cell phone information can give a wide variety
[26:42] of information.
[26:43] Not only could we call this social media,
[26:46] we could call exactly where those data points are,
[26:48] where somebody is at a specific time and place.
[26:52] But also video evidence.
[26:54] We are looking at, there is video on everything right now.
[26:57] So, we might get six hours of video on something of which we need 35 seconds.
[27:04] We don't have the time to be able to go through six hours of video, find the 35 seconds
[27:09] that we need, tender it to the defense and be ready to go.
[27:13] So that is a technology thing now that we are looking at.
[27:17] I'll give you an example.
[27:18] Let's say we're looking for a white car and six hours of video.
[27:21] You can put it into a program, it'll pull up every single clip where there's a white car.
[27:26] And that's a little bit, that's a manageable amount that an attorney can look at and be like,
[27:31] OK, here's my evidence.
[27:32] We tender the whole six hours to the defense with the portion that we are using for evidence,
[27:38] so that there is no longer jam and discover it.
[27:41] So we need that digital forensics as well.
[27:45] There's a third component to it, and I am blanking on what it is.
[27:48] What is our third component?
[27:50] Oh, trial technology.
[27:51] So not only do we need to understand and be able to present this, we need to be able to go in front of a jury and have the technology capable of presenting this to a jury where they can understand exactly what that evidence shows and how we're proving our case.
[28:10] So it seems as though efficiency can go up and maybe ultimately case movement we can see less delay and you'll have less questions.
[28:19] This is our best evidence. This is is irrefutable proof and that makes our cases solid.
[28:27] When we go up on a peel when they're challenged later we have solid evidence.
[28:32] So when I'm saying that's the best evidence available that is the best evidence for the entire system.
[28:39] So, one follow-up, and then Chairman, I'm done.
[28:44] Let's just focus on ballistic.
[28:45] So, you go through this process and we're able now because of the forensics unit to conduct
[28:51] our own analysis of the relative to ballistic.
[28:54] How does that affect or impact the role of law enforcement?
[28:58] Is this a both-hand?
[28:59] Is there?
[29:00] How will that actually play out?
[29:01] It makes us more effective.
[29:03] It makes us more efficient and it makes us be able to collaborate and get more done in a much more efficient manner.
[29:13] So, is the role of law enforcement diminished?
[29:16] I don't think so.
[29:18] There are still arrests that need to be made.
[29:20] There are still evidence that needs to be gathered.
[29:22] There are still interviews that need to be done.
[29:25] Those are all part of law enforcement as well.
[29:27] This is an enhancement.
[29:29] Thank you.
[29:30] Nothing further.
[29:31] And
[29:35] thank you, in reference to the sharing of evidence, I believe the public defender mentioned it earlier, so it will be improved in proves everyone.
[29:44] Absolutely.
[29:45] And if I could mention the public defender's office has six attorneys who have a scientific background in their forensics unit.
[29:54] That's significant.
[29:56] Make sure more.
[29:59] Follow back.
[30:00] Good afternoon.
[30:05] Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Yesterday, the sheriff spoke about his office scene.
[30:14] It's recently said that they had seen a slew of this board recently saw a slew of testifiers who came to the board to express their concerns about their safety.
[30:32] So, first of all, there is two components, two orders of protection.
[30:36] One is a civil order of protection, one is a criminal order of protection.
[30:40] States Attorney's Office has nothing to do with the civil orders of protection.
[30:44] The criminal orders of protection, if it is served and it is understood by the defendant
[30:54] what the parameters are, and they were put on a GPS monitor, or they're detained because of it.
[31:01] I think it's very, very effective in deterring any further domestic violence. What we need to do
[31:09] as prosecutors is make sure that we are talking to that victim as soon as we possibly can
[31:15] and getting them the services that they need. We've seen this cycle of violence. Again and again and again
[31:21] where they're going back to their abuser because they have no choice because of financial
[31:26] because of their children because of whatever reasons we need to make sure that our services
[31:31] are meeting them as soon as we possibly can. So on a felony case where we would be there,
[31:37] they're right there at the point of charging with felony review. We have to be there meeting the victim
[31:43] and making sure that we are connecting them to resources so they are not forced back into that
[31:48] which was where they're not safe.
[31:50] I don't think there's any question right now.
[31:52] Last year, it was 9% of the total murders
[31:55] were domestic violence related.
[31:57] We have seen a plunge in murders in the county,
[32:02] but 17% of those murders now are domestic related.
[32:06] That means I've almost doubled in the percentage of murders.
[32:11] We need to do better.
[32:13] We need to make sure our processes and our systems
[32:16] are in place.
[32:17] Part of the civil orders of protection worldwide is I would like women to bring criminal charges.
[32:27] That's where the protection comes in.
[32:30] That's where we can get somebody detained or put on a GPS monitor where they can't come near them.
[32:35] Those are the things that we can do immediately upon going into court.
[32:39] Oh, these women that testified that they don't so safe, they would just continuously call
[32:45] the police.
[32:46] That's how they would put it on a criminal.
[32:48] In civil orders of protection, if they were not served by the sheriff's office, previously
[32:54] the state's attorney's office could not get access to that.
[32:58] So you might have five prior orders of protection, but they were never served.
[33:02] And the state's attorney's office couldn't see the contents of those orders of protection,
[33:06] and we couldn't utilize them in any detention hearing.
[33:10] We knew we needed access to that information quickly.
[33:14] So we immediately petitioned the Chief Judge's Office
[33:17] to make sure that we had access to those files.
[33:20] We needed to have access to the child protection files.
[33:24] We needed to have access to divorce groups.
[33:27] All of those sources of information
[33:30] that we were precluded from having we now have.
[33:33] Our detention rates on domestic violence went from about 50 percent when we took office to 82 percent now.
[33:40] That's a significant change.
[33:43] So, if a person comes here and they testify that they don't feel safe, what is your recommendation?
[33:49] We can't just tell them to call it Chief Judge's office.
[33:51] No, I would say that if they're not feeling safe, we need specifics.
[33:56] We need evidence in order to establish why are they not feeling safe?
[34:00] start keeping track of things, keeping track of the phone calls,
[34:03] keeping track of the visits, keeping track every single time in order
[34:07] a projection is violated.
[34:08] If they have a log and they go to the police with the log,
[34:12] then it is just a process of getting a violation of an order protection.
[34:16] Going, that's a crime.
[34:20] And I believe that this question is probably more for the Chief Judge's office,
[34:24] but I'm going to ask it anyway.
[34:26] I'll wing it.
[34:27] I'll wing it, Commissioner.
[34:27] Um, some of the testifiers that came here to the board to testify they, there was a lot of complaints about the Guardian at Lightems, and one woman testified that she was actually arrested for not being able to pay her fees that are associated with having a Guardian at Lightems.
[34:44] Are we arresting and putting women in jail for not being able to pay?
[34:47] No. No.
[34:51] They could be arrested for, I said in a post judgment court room for many years.
[34:58] So the only way you get arrested is if you violate a court order, you could be violated
[35:04] for that and held in contempt of court, but people are not being arrested for not paying
[35:10] fees.
[35:11] All right. Thank you so much.
[35:15] Thanks for clarification. I think we've stated by one of the
[35:18] agencies, that if the police respond and they have a cut out, they could check into, if the
[35:25] individual tells them there's an order of protection that they could go into the legacy
[35:29] or one of the accounts I remember during that remaining.
[35:33] So I want to test find in this, that they can't issue a report of
[35:38] protection.
[35:39] It was issued earlier.
[35:45] Commissioner DeGnaud.
[35:47] Thank you, Chairman.
[35:47] Thank you, State's attorney for being here and your team, for all the work that you've
[35:52] in the short time that you've been in the office since you've been elected. So for years we have
[35:57] talked about how to fill vacancies at the Cook County State Attorney's Office and these hearings
[36:03] and it sounds like you have been able to make some pretty significant headway over the last
[36:08] months. Can you talk a little bit more about your need for new positions beyond the vacancy?
[36:15] I know that you had talked a bit about the need for people on your forensics unit, you
[36:24] will need at least two ASAs for DNA, Ballistics and Investigators in addition, and in
[36:33] total, there's like a couple hundred people that you need.
[36:36] Can you kind of break that out for us a little bit more, please?
[36:38] Sure.
[36:39] I'm going to default to John in a minute, but I did want to say it is a big
[36:45] minimum that we need three assistants in each and every felony courtroom. That is a bare minimum that's necessary.
[36:54] We have misdemeanor calls, 20 different misdemeanor calls all over the county that have one assistant state's attorney in there.
[37:00] So if you have 60 or 70 cases on the call, someone has to be running the call. Someone has to be talking to witnesses.
[37:07] as someone has to be making sure that our evidence for trials are ready to go.
[37:14] It is not a luxury to have three assistants in a courtroom.
[37:19] It's a necessity.
[37:20] In order to respond to the victims that we're serving every single day, we absolutely
[37:25] need to have three assistants in a courtroom.
[37:27] In addition, our civil division needs as many attorneys as we can possibly get and that
[37:36] is money well spent, and if you will in judgment for one minute, our asset forefature unit
[37:42] has one attorney in it. We need four attorneys. Asset forefature allows us to go after
[37:47] narcotics, human trafficking, gun trafficking, operations, where not only can we take down an
[37:55] entire network by seizing their assets, but we get to retain 25% of the assets that are recovered.
[38:03] that is money coming back into Cook County's coffers. That is is every single attorney we fund
[38:11] for asset for a future will pay for itself. So that's one. Our civil actions bureau touches
[38:18] every single unit of Cook County government. We need to have attorneys in order to litigate
[38:24] these cases effectively. We need to make sure that our attorneys, we will know that they are trained,
[38:29] we will know that they understand that area of law as experts.
[38:35] We need to make sure that all of those divisions are fully staffed,
[38:38] fully trained and ready to go.
[38:41] That is good government.
[38:43] So I'm going to turn over to John on the specifics.
[38:46] Thank you.
[38:47] So.
[38:47] Just John before, can you have to identify yourself?
[38:50] Yes.
[38:50] I'll start the record, but I also want you to talk a little bit about our
[38:53] historic reliance on outside council.
[38:56] And if we bulk up our internal staffing, how that will affect your work, both from an administrative
[39:04] perspective and from a financial perspective.
[39:07] Thank you, Commissioner.
[39:09] Thank you, Commissioner.
[39:09] General and Chief Financial Officer.
[39:12] So as the State Attorney said, our needs are many in there across the office.
[39:16] So the budget request that the entire office has worked very hard to put together presents
[39:23] And across the board, need that equates to about 380 positions in addition to the vacant positions that the office presently has.
[39:33] Those are in every unit, every office, every discipline across the office.
[39:38] It includes paralegals, investigators, administrative assistance.
[39:43] It's to meet the needs as the state's attorneys described.
[39:47] And this is a very new type of practice of law, the e-discovery that we're confronted with is created volumes of work that just didn't exist in the past.
[39:59] Specific to your question about the civil side, where we have a reliance on outside counsel that the analysis that we've done internally suggests that not only do you gain a body of knowledge and internal operating expertise,
[40:15] but you gain efficiencies by having staff attorneys working on workers'
[40:21] compcases, civil rights and towards cases, things that are the everyday
[40:26] work of that bureau in order to protect the county and manage risk for the
[40:31] county. So that's one example of an area where that building that bench of
[40:36] internal expertise will have a financial payoff that down the road is much greater
[40:43] than the investment in the talent that we'll be doing the work.
[40:47] That sounds great. Just to stand staffing for a second, the FY25 budget incorporated a
[40:54] turn over rate, a greater than 8%. So how does that really impact your financials?
[41:02] So what it does is it presented a lot fewer salary dollars for the office to actually be able
[41:08] fill vacant positions. So it's not like one person would be in that job if it's a
[41:13] if they're making $70,000 a year. So you're not getting $70,000 for that
[41:19] position you're getting less because you're thinking that turnover is going to
[41:22] happen and that's going to take time so there'll be a gap. It's sort of a theoretical
[41:27] concept if you will where it's not really applied on a position by position basis.
[41:32] It is a limitation on the totality of available dollars that are appropriated
[41:37] to cover salaries, expense in the office.
[41:41] And prior to the last couple of years,
[41:44] the office was historically budgeting that at about 3%.
[41:48] We saw it escalate over the last several years,
[41:52] and it, with it, peaking at 8 and a quarter percent for this year.
[41:54] And as the state attorney said, that's more than $6 million
[41:57] of funding that we don't have.
[42:00] And that roughly translates into anywhere from 50 to 80 to 90 positions
[42:06] that we are just unable to fill throughout the year as the turnover happens as people leave,
[42:12] we are just slowed in our ability to fill those positions.
[42:16] So, would your budget request for FY26 include a decrease in the documented turnover rate
[42:23] since it's not your not turning over a eight percent?
[42:27] Yes, the initial budget request is based upon a reduction of that back to the historical
[42:32] 3% turnover rate, as I said, it's sort of a theoretical number and if we are able to achieve
[42:41] our goal of building the office that we've described in the budget request, that turnover
[42:46] rate may be higher in year to year, but as long as we have the positions to begin to fill
[42:53] them, we will then seek the dollars in order to provide for those positions. There's two components
[43:00] to it. There's dollars and actual positions, and so we've identified the positions, and now we're
[43:05] working on the funding mechanisms with the budget office in order to get there. Okay, and so
[43:11] you know, we already talked a little bit about digital discovery, and what's necessary for your office
[43:17] to ensure the proper number of victims specialist investigators in that 380 new positions. So we don't
[43:30] have in order to make sure that your office is doing what is required by the law.
[43:36] So I'm in favor of those.
[43:38] When we met with our pre mid-year budget hearing meeting a couple of
[43:44] weeks ago in preparation for this meeting here today, we had talked about
[43:48] working on your new case management system, which I think you had
[43:52] discussed a little bit with Commissioner Moore.
[43:56] And so the public defender was here before you and said that they also
[43:59] see a lot of e-discovery and I had mentioned to them that I think really making sure that there
[44:04] is some tech that allows you guys to share information because you have so many cases together,
[44:10] streamline the process and make financial sense for the county. You know, you have your own case
[44:16] management systems but as long as there's some tech that allows you to share that data,
[44:20] as you said, there's going to be growing e-discovery who knows what's going to be next.
[44:24] technology is just going to get bigger and hopefully better for governments and for private.
[44:29] So I think it's really incumbent upon the county to support you, make sure that that free
[44:35] way of traffic, you discover traffic, you know, there's a firewall obviously for confidentiality,
[44:41] but that you guys can swiftly and streamline your operations by being able to share that.
[44:50] A little bit about your litigation technology unit, you talked a little bit about that, that would also ensure that NFO is shared quickly.
[45:00] Your office and the defense side. It would ensure speedy trial. I know that you both have seen some of the, the, excuse me, press reports that have come out about the length of time that people are detained in our jail and that the faster you can work in the public tender can work or a defense expert can work or defense attorney can work. The faster the trial will happen. The less time people hopefully spend in jail and the less financial burden to the county.
[45:28] So, is there, with a litigation technology unit, what is that in tell for our toll number of people?
[45:38] I believe we're looking for at least four new trial technology professionals.
[45:44] And obviously, there's a bigger picture component of working with the Chief Judge's office on the court room technology aspect of it.
[45:53] But the budget request begins with internal four additional people for trial technology support.
[46:00] Okay, perfect.
[46:01] My last question is around EM.
[46:03] There's an EM transition.
[46:04] Do you have thoughts about how that transition's going or, you know?
[46:09] So, and I know I do now have to overly explain this to this group.
[46:15] But electronic monitoring was transferred from the sheriff's office to the chief judge's office on April 1st.
[46:22] There are some issues with it, and the reason is because the Sheriff's Office had 175 sworn
[46:33] law enforcement officers who were in charge of the electronic monitoring.
[46:37] If someone went off of the electronic monitoring, if they violated it, or if they went
[46:42] a while, if they cut off their monitor, one of the Sheriff's officers could go and retrieve
[46:50] that person bring an accord and see if it's necessary to charge them with escape or to ask for
[46:56] detention. Anyways, when that system moved to the Chief Judge's office, it was placed under the
[47:03] rubrics of pre-trial services. Pre-trial services are not law enforcement authorities. They do not
[47:09] have a rest authority. They do not have the ability to go and get somebody if they are on electronic
[47:16] monitoring and they have gone a while or cut off their band. The only mechanism that they
[47:22] have is to file a violation and the violation would have to somehow find the defendant to
[47:29] give him notice of the violation in order to have him in court. It's a significant problem.
[47:36] We have instructed our assistant states attorneys if we ask for detention and we have given our
[47:43] systems very specific types of crimes that we ask for detention on.
[47:48] It's not willy-nilly.
[47:49] The pre trial fairness act gives us a very strict boundaries on when we can ask for detention.
[47:56] In addition to those boundaries, we have our own boundaries.
[47:59] We ask for detention each and every time someone is found with the machine gun conversion
[48:03] device.
[48:04] We ask for detention anytime a weapon is used in a forceful felony.
[48:08] We asked for detention any time, a forceful felony is put somebody in the hospital.
[48:14] We asked for detention if any time someone commits a violent crime on the CTA.
[48:21] Any sexual assault we will ask for detention.
[48:25] These are all allowable under the Petrial Fairness Act.
[48:27] In addition, this is not an exhaustive list.
[48:30] If somebody has a criminal background that allows us to ask for detention and the crime warrant
[48:36] we will ask for detention. If we're not asking for detention, I don't care if somebody
[48:41] is monitored or not. They are not a danger to the public. What the pre-trial fairness act
[48:46] says, and it's a fundamental change that we are the first in the nation doing this. It says,
[48:52] we are not going to look at money bond anymore. We are only going to look at are you a danger
[48:58] to the public or are you not? If you are a danger to the public, we ask for detention. If we're
[49:06] believe you're a danger and you can go about your life and get ready for trial. There is no need for
[49:11] electronic monitoring. But if somebody is a danger to the public they should not be on electronic
[49:18] monitoring. There are currently 40 people charged with murder or attempt murder on electronic monitoring.
[49:24] That is not an appropriate fence of fence to be on electronic monitoring. So we take our responsibility
[49:31] very, very seriously, and when we ask for detention and when we do not.
[49:37] Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. There's all my questions.
[49:50] Good afternoon, Your Honor.
[49:52] Good afternoon. It was good to see you.
[49:53] And I'm always going to call you that.
[49:55] I appreciate that very much.
[49:56] It's a sign of respect, by the way.
[49:59] First off, I wanted to, again, just as I said to the public defender,
[50:05] and I'm sure my colleagues are sick of me talking about it.
[50:08] But having been on trial a lot recently and being able to use my iPad
[50:11] for everything I need and to access the cloud and almost limitless data without having to worry
[50:16] about how many, how much RAM I have or how many megabytes of data I can store on my computer
[50:23] has made my job a lot easier, particularly when you can interface with an LMO or other
[50:28] audio visual advice. I think that's essential to you guys to do your job in the most basic sense
[50:34] in modern technology. So whatever your commitment is to this board will be reciprocated
[50:40] because we need you to have that at your fingertips
[50:43] as does the public offender.
[50:45] And have we do the same vendor so much the better?
[50:49] But we'll see how it goes.
[50:52] One thing that I get to see a lot of as chairman
[50:56] of the litigation committee is the civil aspect
[50:59] of your office.
[51:01] And I think justifiably, you talk a lot about the criminal
[51:04] aspects of it as well.
[51:06] It gets a lot more press.
[51:07] It is a big part of what you do.
[51:08] is obviously it's the basic human rights and constitutional rights of our citizens, which are essential.
[51:14] But we get sued a lot, and we rely on you for so much, and I just want to give a shout
[51:19] out to both Kath and Miguel Stein, and Jacka Scheller, who do an excellent job for you,
[51:25] and I have a higher expectation from them, and they meet it every single time.
[51:29] As to your entire civil practice division, so thank you for that.
[51:34] But I wonder sometimes, as you've talked about the asset forfeiture, there's other
[51:38] ways in which the State's Attorney's Office can focus on whether being environmental enforcement
[51:43] or other aspects of your office where it is more proactive and we're actually suing
[51:48] other people, which then obtains monies for the county of Cook, which makes it so much
[51:55] easier for us to fulfill our obligations to you to supply the resources in personnel you need.
[52:01] Is that something that you also think you can commit to continue to examine?
[52:04] Not only are we committing to examine it, and we are committed to making sure we are fully staffed
[52:09] in our tax department, and there's so many things that the state's attorney's office does,
[52:16] that the general public has no idea. But any sources of revenue that we can bring back to
[52:22] the county, that is money well spent. That is making sure that we have the personnel and the
[52:27] expertise necessary to do that. So we are absolutely committed to that, and Commissioner Britain,
[52:33] I appreciate you bring that issue up because civil is off a no-ver looked, but it should not be.
[52:39] It is such a vital part of this office.
[52:42] And I can see it every month.
[52:44] And I do appreciate the fact that there are times when we're going to have to have conflicts
[52:49] Council, there's no way around it.
[52:51] We do now monitor it a little bit.
[52:53] When I started, we monitor the outside council charges more than we used to.
[52:57] But I think that's also part of this to be able to have people trained in the system
[53:01] who can continue to have a handle the civil matters without getting them referred out,
[53:05] that certainly something we want to make sure of.
[53:07] And I just want to make sure that I caution, you know, I do get concerned if someone's, you know,
[53:13] some grandma's cars being seized because they're nephew used it in a crime.
[53:18] Are we, do we try to drill down to make sure that we're not using our set for a future in a way that would be
[53:24] either unfair or not in compliance with the letter of a law?
[53:27] Absolutely. And I will, if I could give you an example,
[53:30] We have had an explosion in cybercrime and and anybody who has an elderly parent could probably tell you that
[53:38] They're very sophisticated now in cybercrime. So
[53:42] Asset forfeiture is going after them and recovering money the feds won't touch a case if the value is less than 500,000
[53:50] Ouch when we're talking about a lot of people's entire retirement account done so not only is it taking a grandma's car
[53:57] it's not. That's a tiny, minuscule fraction. But what it is is recovering money for people who
[54:06] were depleted. They're entire retirement savings was depleted. And our one ASA who is an
[54:12] asset for a picture is so passionate about it. But every meeting we have with her, she goes through
[54:19] how much money she was able to recover for people who were the victims of financial fraud,
[54:24] of cybercrime, of all of those types of, so it's not just recovery for the county in assets,
[54:31] it's recovery, and making whole our victims. Absolutely. And I want to make sure that we continue
[54:37] to emphasize, as we continue to develop the new and different ways in which we approach certain aspects,
[54:47] including trying to find restorative justices, justice courts, and doing things a little bit better.
[54:52] I also know that there was once a hate crimes unit in the state's attorney's office, I know
[54:57] that we now have people who have a specialty in doing that, but is it your continuing commitment
[55:04] to make sure that if we see something that may be a misdemeanor, but because of a racial
[55:08] animus or a discriminatory animus can be upcharged to a hate crime, we're still going to make
[55:13] sure that we prosecute those?
[55:14] Not only are we prosecuting those, but we are seeking legislation and springfield in order
[55:20] to enhance hate crime. So let's say there is an aggrade battery that's committed and also has a hate crime
[55:26] component to it. What we are seeking to do is when that hate crime will enhance the aggravated
[55:33] battery to a higher class of felony. So not only will that function as a deterrent for people, but
[55:39] we are hoping that that will be a measure to keep that behavior out of our system. But I can tell you
[55:47] the last three days. I get a morning report of everything that was charged in the night before.
[55:52] And we had the hate crime of the spray painting, the anti-immigrant spray painting. Last night,
[55:58] we had a hate crime of people's spray painting in a building that had an Israeli flag in their window.
[56:04] It is, we have an angry populace right now. And we need to send a very clear message that that behavior
[56:11] is not tolerated and is, in fact, criminal. And I think your office is doing an excellent job
[56:16] of doing what we consider to be all hate.
[56:19] And all hate crimes to be equally odious
[56:22] and not just the anti-Semitic incidents
[56:24] as the Islamophobic of the LGBTQ plus.
[56:28] All of those things I know you're committed to maintaining
[56:30] and I appreciate that as we continue forward together.
[56:34] And that is my last point.
[56:36] I did have breakfast recently with your chief deputy.
[56:39] And I can tell you that from me, it is essential
[56:44] that we have those types of meetings. I didn't always meet necessarily with predecessors in that
[56:50] way. I found it both enlightening. It was always nice to see her. But also, because we talked about
[56:55] a lot of issues, our strategy on settlement, a wrongful conviction. The things that we're doing on
[57:01] budget, the ways that we can do better, trying to find new ways to increase revenue to the county.
[57:06] All of those things happen because you reach out to us and then we can then talk to our colleagues
[57:13] to find a way to do this better and I can tell you that meant a lot to me and it is exactly
[57:19] the kind of thing that I think the people of Cook County expected when they elected you
[57:23] and that you're doing and I just want to say personally thank you and let's keep it up.
[57:27] Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.
[57:30] Janor Naya.
[57:32] Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Just a few questions.
[57:37] So earlier today, when Commissioner DeGnam was asking questions, and throughout your presentation,
[57:43] you've talked a little bit about turnover and how that's really impacted, you know, your operations,
[57:48] but also your budget. So I just wanted to clarify, so under personal, it looked like we were budgeting,
[57:57] 65.7 million dollars, but it's gone over. That is that because of the turnover,
[58:03] It's what's the, so the attrition rate, we have to hold back 100 plus spots.
[58:11] So we had done as much hiring as we can do under that restriction of, you got 100 spots
[58:19] to can't touch.
[58:21] So we are bumping up on those numbers right now, and we might be a little bit over our
[58:26] and all numbers, but it's not because of lack of necessity, it's because we are triaging
[58:33] all over the system right now to make sure everything is covered, but I'm going to let
[58:37] Johnny answer that more specifically.
[58:40] Thank you.
[58:40] Commissioner, you're referring to the, you're a page 1, yes, you're today total budgeted versus
[58:48] the actual.
[58:49] Yes, so the building on what the state's ready said, so the office has been running a
[58:55] over budget on the salary spending, which is a reflection of doing everything we can in conjunction
[59:03] with the budget office to fill positions in spite of the lack of dollars in that line item,
[59:09] which is why you want to transfer the, potentially, transfer the amount from the 8% to the
[59:16] 3% to kind of offset that. And so that would be a 2026 consideration, meaning the word for 2026,
[59:22] so that we're showing it in this budget and why we need to do that.
[59:26] Yes, it demonstrates the need, meaning we have more vacancies than operationally we can handle,
[59:34] but we don't have the dollars to fill them in this fiscal year.
[59:37] So it's something we want to address by making that adjustment in 2026.
[59:42] Okay, perfect.
[59:43] But Commissioner, if I could address this for one second, we have been when I said we've been
[59:48] The way we have been triaging is we created a multi jurisdiction bureau where there any type of crime that could cross county city lines any type of crime that we might
[1:00:00] I'd be partnering with federal agencies, those all go in multi jurisdictions. So cybercrime, financial crime, public corruption, some hate crime, human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, gun strategy. They are all in this multi jurisdiction bureau.
[1:00:15] We needed to have more cybercrime specialists, we needed more financial climate, and we didn't
[1:00:22] have the capability of hiring people.
[1:00:25] So what we did is we did specialized training that was open to anybody in the office to
[1:00:30] come to multi-day training with all different federal agencies, all different law enforcement
[1:00:38] agencies that deal in these areas, and then we would designate them as a cybercrime specialist.
[1:00:45] a financial crime specialist. They would retain their same position in the felony trial division
[1:00:51] with the regular case load, but as these cases came in, they could also be specially designated
[1:00:57] to be on those cases. So that we are covering the expertise that's necessary for that case,
[1:01:03] but we're triaging on how to utilize the personnel. And that's helping with just like the process internally
[1:01:11] of being able to really get to your point, the specific cases and having the right person out on
[1:01:16] place.
[1:01:18] I'm turning over to the vacancies, so right now, I think 129.7 vacancies, what did that look like
[1:01:28] when you came in?
[1:01:30] And then are you specifically hoping to address that in the next year?
[1:01:34] I know that that continues to be a challenge.
[1:01:35] I know we've talked a lot about it here already, but are there any specific steps that are
[1:01:40] to be taken. I know in the past we've worked with the different offices for attention and recruitment
[1:01:44] bonuses. So just what the strategy looks like there.
[1:01:49] So just to give you a historical perspective, when I became a state attorney in 1991, there were 23
[1:01:55] hundred applications for 50 spots. It was a highly coveted job. We want to get back to that. So the
[1:02:01] way that we are getting back to that is increasing the 711's first of all. But we're also making
[1:02:08] our trainings significant. This is like getting a master's degree in trial work. That's what we want.
[1:02:16] We want if you're interested in financial crimes, get a certification in it. If you're interested
[1:02:22] in animal cruelty, we're going to offer you a certification in that. We can offer you if you
[1:02:27] like writing, we have an appeals division. If you like being in a courtroom and working with the
[1:02:35] terms from beginning to end, that's our special victims unit. So we're utilizing a multitude of
[1:02:42] different areas to recruit as many people as possible. We are going out on recruitment, we are
[1:02:47] going to schools as many schools locally as we can to minimize our expenditures on travel. We are
[1:02:56] doing, I've actually made a new rule, if somebody wants to go on a training, they can do it if they
[1:03:00] and go do job recruitment at the law schools nearby.
[1:03:04] And they come back and they train everybody else.
[1:03:08] We're having very good success with our applications.
[1:03:11] We're seeing a significant increase in people
[1:03:14] who want to come and work for us.
[1:03:16] We want to retain those people.
[1:03:18] So we want to put them on a path
[1:03:20] for that they will continue to learn and grow.
[1:03:23] We are starting a leadership academy
[1:03:24] where we're going to train them how to manage people,
[1:03:28] how to be the best possible manager you can.
[1:03:30] how to deal with the media, how to do all of those things that a supervisor needs to do.
[1:03:36] Those are skill sets that you can take with you. Those are skill sets that the state's
[1:03:41] attorney's office can offer you, but we also want people to want to work here and stay here.
[1:03:48] So we're working very hard on morale. So yes, it's a challenge, but it's a challenge that I think
[1:03:55] where we're starting to see some traction.
[1:03:57] Good, good to hear.
[1:03:59] Want to shift a little bit to support staff,
[1:04:01] paralegals.
[1:04:02] So you mentioned earlier that you believe that it's the ASA,
[1:04:07] is that you may be need additional support.
[1:04:10] In the past, we've heard that the support staff
[1:04:13] is extremely needed just because of all
[1:04:17] of the administrative work and burden that ends up
[1:04:21] in the hands of ASAs.
[1:04:22] I'm assuming it's related to what you mentioned earlier regarding all of the video, all of the
[1:04:27] filing, all of that.
[1:04:29] So you're proposing instead of having that support staff be working directly with the ASAs,
[1:04:36] is that you create a whole different division and lab the forensics lab, and I believe you
[1:04:43] called it the forensic unit, to kind of handle that aspect, and then work, so it's centralized
[1:04:49] And then folks can reach out there, tap into that.
[1:04:55] So does that mean that this whole unit or the forensic lab is on new hires or are you tapping into staff again that are specialized?
[1:05:03] Now we'll be kind of shifted into this unit in which now folks are able to tap into that.
[1:05:08] Exactly. So we have interviewed and we found a supervisor for that unit to help us with this build.
[1:05:18] He was innovative, had ideas on what we could do right now before we have our technology that's necessary.
[1:05:26] So it will be people who are interested in it within the office.
[1:05:30] People who have sufficient felony trial experience to be useful in every single division of the office that needs to tap in.
[1:05:38] So we're hoping to keep it internal.
[1:05:41] A scientist will need to bring in a scientist.
[1:05:44] Because you said you only have one.
[1:05:45] We only have one. We could use another one. Yeah. Okay. So, do you foresee that that unit is going to be able to bulk up to the need?
[1:05:53] Yeah. So, you think there's enough interest internally? Yes. Okay. Do you have an estimate of the additional cost for either technology or equipment that is going to be needed or even space, right? Like having a physical space.
[1:06:09] Do you foresee that that will be absorbed within your budget or your ask of 2026 or is that something that you're additionally requesting?
[1:06:17] The physical space is we are looking at it to the end of that right now, but I'm going to turn that over to John on that specific ask.
[1:06:26] Thank you.
[1:06:27] Thank you, Commissioner John, right here in CFO. There are a couple components to it to your question.
[1:06:32] And so there's a capital component, and the office has made the capital request for some of the
[1:06:38] technology needed in order to address the digital evidence management that the state
[1:06:43] attorney referred to.
[1:06:44] There's a personnel component, so there are, in addition to the needed ASA, there's also a
[1:06:51] part of our request is for 50 more paralegal positions.
[1:06:55] And in doing, in making that request, we've also attempted to address the pay disparity between
[1:07:01] the state's attorney's office and the public defender's office because the difference in pay
[1:07:07] was so significant that we needed to address it. So those are the two major asks with respect
[1:07:15] to the fiscal 26 budget process. We're still in discussions, obviously, about what's going to
[1:07:20] look. You all have scheduled meetings, I believe August the week of August 11,
[1:07:27] So while we're waiting for this, sometimes it takes a while to get the equipment or the approval or maybe not of all of our asks are going to be included in this budget.
[1:07:39] Are we still going to be moving forward with the unit regardless if there's as we kind of transition into that model as opposed to the other model.
[1:07:47] So we have already, as I said, we selected the supervisor in there who can be the person that others tap into from all over the office.
[1:07:58] We also have two investigators who are in the digital forensics unit that are now trying to triage ways that we can get those cell phone dumps and that we can get video evidence,
[1:08:09] process in a timely manner to get it to our assays who can then get it to the defense.
[1:08:15] So we're moving forward.
[1:08:17] Okay, perfect.
[1:08:19] Can you remind me with the total amount of hours?
[1:08:21] I think you said a 197,000 hours, a hundred and 90,000.
[1:08:27] 90 of video as opposed to Netflix 37,000 hours.
[1:08:32] Is that, is that just what the current case loader does that historically?
[1:08:36] Like you get more and more video every day. I mean we don't get rid of any necessarily of the case is not closed
[1:08:43] No, we have to retain it. Okay. Yes, is that by state statute and how long does that have to be maintained until the case is disposed of which
[1:08:53] I mean if it were heal it varies. So we have we have needs. So just just like the bottom right now. Yeah, it's just going to get bigger. Okay. Thank you
[1:09:03] Moving on to domestic violence. Again, thank you again so much for being with us last week and really walking us through, um, you know, the operations. You introduced the Bureau to a special victims Bureau, which is something that is, uh, is good. We talked to, um, uh, the sheriff, um, yesterday. I know they have their own, their their own type of kind of a special victims, um, division of sorts. Um, and they did, uh, you know, I asked them, it was their interest in any way of like collaborating or at least sharing
[1:09:33] resources information. They said yes. Has that been a conversation that you have started with other stakeholders?
[1:09:39] And then it's certainly just a share of softest, but just others that may have the same type of model.
[1:09:43] And there might be overlap. And then it's necessarily fully because you all have different
[1:09:47] you know mandates and different things that you have to handle. But just wondering what that looks like.
[1:09:53] Yeah, that's a question. So we do meet with all of our law enforcement partners on a regular basis.
[1:09:58] We meet with CPV and they also have a domestic violence unit.
[1:10:02] Now, we are working with the American Prosecutors Association to do a domestic violence summit in Chicago.
[1:10:10] The same way we did the machine gun conversion device summit in June.
[1:10:16] Those are important collaborations. That makes a difference if we are all
[1:10:20] growing in the same direction. We can make seismic change on this if we collaborate.
[1:10:26] So it's very important to us to consistently and routinely have meetings with all law enforcement
[1:10:31] personnel. Have you an I forgot to ask this last week? Have you kind of chance to look at the
[1:10:39] report and the recommendations that came out of the domestic violence committee that was formed
[1:10:44] by the Chief Judge in 2022? I'm not sure if you've had an agenda. The reason I'm asking is I know that
[1:10:51] there's interest in starting up the conversation and I think it would be very valuable to get the
[1:10:56] state attorney's office kind of perspective on it and whether there's any specific areas that we
[1:11:01] you need to change or maybe that have not fully been put into practice and what adjustments
[1:11:08] need to happen.
[1:11:09] As we move forward, there seems to be a lot of interest in general from the sport and
[1:11:13] other stakeholders to really move forward and again to make right by some of our survivors
[1:11:20] that are going through the system and actually providing support systems and part of that
[1:11:24] is really dissecting the different entities and seeing what works what doesn't and then how
[1:11:28] can we move forward.
[1:11:29] So, we do Judy Bryce, who is the judge who's in charge of domestic violence, we meet with her regularly, we talk about, you know, what is happening, what would work, what is and going to work.
[1:11:42] One of the issues that we're seeing is in domestic violence court at 555, 40% of the cases that they have there are stocking no contact orders, which have nothing to do with domestic violence.
[1:11:54] There, you know, they could be anything from a neighbor cut my bushes or it could be a myriad of things, they're they're clogging up the the workings over there and we have been talking to the chief judge as well as judge price about moving those out into a different
[1:12:12] to the Miss Demeter Quart rooms and to different courthouses around the community.
[1:12:18] We think that would be a significant step forward.
[1:12:22] We're hopeful to be getting that done.
[1:12:24] But to your point, yes, we absolutely need to be at the table and discussing things
[1:12:30] because working together, we can get a systems in place that work better for everybody.
[1:12:36] And if it's just us making our decisions or just the judiciary making their decisions,
[1:12:40] we are missing a huge component of what is going to take to make that work. So yes, we're absolutely
[1:12:45] amenable to that. Thank you. So my first budget amendment when I became a commissioner was to
[1:12:52] create a pilot program to have DV and sexual assault survivor navigators within the court houses.
[1:12:58] A few years later it was absorbed within the budget of the state attorney's office.
[1:13:03] Is that still something that is done as kind of separate? Or is that kind of integrated in
[1:13:07] their work that you're talking about. And have we grown that in any way? Because I think
[1:13:11] at the time it was just two positions. I know I want to make sure I give you the accurate
[1:13:16] information. But we do have victim witness personnel that are specialists in sexual assault
[1:13:23] and domestic violence, that have that. But I know that there was a specific question or we have,
[1:13:41] So, Commissioner, thank you for asking that question.
[1:13:44] What we have learned over the years is that a domestic violence survivor, when they first
[1:13:49] encounter the system, they need to have wraparound services.
[1:13:53] Just having a prosecutor is just not enough.
[1:13:56] They need to have a survivor advocate, advocating for them.
[1:14:00] they need private legal service providers advocating for them,
[1:14:04] they need safety plans.
[1:14:05] So back in 1993, 1995, there was the tech,
[1:14:10] the targeted abusers call, that created that model
[1:14:13] where there was a wraparound services,
[1:14:16] a state's attorney, private investigator from state's
[1:14:20] attorney's office, victim witness, private social service
[1:14:23] provider, as well as a legal service provider.
[1:14:26] We are in the process right now of renewing that grant
[1:14:29] that goes all the way back from 1995,
[1:14:32] that the University of Chicago has just on a plan
[1:14:34] that indicates that that is the promising practice
[1:14:37] still, that that is the best way to service victims.
[1:14:42] I believe that what you are referring to
[1:14:44] is that we do have a survivor specialist
[1:14:46] that is over at our domestic violence,
[1:14:49] but one is not enough, we need more.
[1:14:52] And so the best way for any victim
[1:14:55] that is in a domestic violence situation,
[1:14:58] and they are best.
[1:15:00] First served when they are ready to leave that relationship and they're best served when they have the services in support when they're ready to make that decision.
[1:15:08] Right. Absolutely. And I think I always say that when survivor enters the courthouse is often times that that very pivotal moment where either they receive service, they feel supported and they've moved forward.
[1:15:21] or they decide, you know what, maybe this is, I'm just fighting a better piece than I can actually
[1:15:28] chew and it creates a very vulnerable situation for the survivors and their family members,
[1:15:34] especially if they have children. So I always believe that that support system in that touch
[1:15:39] point is extremely important. So I would, you know, obviously encourage us to figure out how to really
[1:15:44] be able to build that up and create that. Just not, not just enough for that moral support,
[1:15:50] But even when we do receive, we talked about the 36 pages, right, of an older protection,
[1:15:55] how cumbersome that is and how folks can really struggle and oftentimes when they step in,
[1:16:00] they're being asked, you're filing this through civil, criminal, and oftentimes they don't even know.
[1:16:04] They don't know the difference. So if they don't know the implications, if they are not walked through
[1:16:09] specifically because we have so many things on our plate, it's kind of hard to kind of sit there with
[1:16:15] someone and explain it fully, that can really determine the case in the applications in the
[1:16:22] long run.
[1:16:22] So I think that those are little areas, and I feel like maybe lowering your fruit of adjustments
[1:16:28] that we can definitely kind of do and work with all stakeholders to be able to address.
[1:16:33] So that would be a suggestion on that end.
[1:16:36] And Commissioner Rihar is seeing that when a survivor is ready to leave that abusive relationship
[1:16:41] it is also when she is the most vulnerable.
[1:16:44] Absolutely.
[1:16:44] So, you're absolutely right that that is the point in time that we need to make sure she's getting wrap around services.
[1:16:50] I just want to state that we do have two survivor engagement specialists, one at 5555, one in the Markham courthouse, and we are seeking the third in the budget.
[1:17:00] Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.
[1:17:06] Assistant states, turning on a demo copolis.
[1:17:08] Thank you.
[1:17:09] My final question is in regards to grants.
[1:17:11] So we know that the office receives numerous grants both from federal and also federal either
[1:17:19] direct or pass throughs.
[1:17:21] So has your office evaluated the impact on these grants and potential changes in what
[1:17:26] can be in jeopardy if there is any callbacks?
[1:17:32] John Hurrah and Chief Financial Officer, Commissioner, we haven't seen any evidence of that yet.
[1:17:38] We're concerned obviously as everyone is in the with all the uncertainty coming out of the federal government.
[1:17:43] It's sort of a case by case basis, we are applying for grant opportunities as they become available.
[1:17:50] There was a time when there were no opportunities available.
[1:17:54] We're now in the process, I think we have two pending applications.
[1:17:59] And we're fortunate in the sense that we have a large portfolio in terms of numbers.
[1:18:03] but and so we're fairly well diversified and we just have to wait and see as all of the
[1:18:09] stakeholders do to to see what the outcomes are with those awards. Okay. Do we have any
[1:18:16] contingency plans for if there are any specific areas that we think may be more vulnerable than
[1:18:22] others? So if we're working with the county on identifying where those vulnerabilities might be,
[1:18:29] We're not aware of any specific high risk areas with respect to our grant portfolio, but we are in
[1:18:36] constant communication with the county's grant budget team in order to understand what might
[1:18:43] be the way to pivot in order to deal with the loss of anything that might be substantial
[1:18:48] to our operations.
[1:18:49] Okay, perfect.
[1:18:50] Thank you.
[1:18:50] Thank you.
[1:18:51] Thank you.
[1:18:52] Thank you.
[1:18:52] Thank you.
[1:18:52] Thank you.
[1:18:55] Commissioner Miller.
[1:19:02] Thank you so much, Chairman. I appreciate it. And thank you so much
[1:19:06] States Attorney. I appreciate you as well. And I appreciate all the information you provided us during the hearing last week.
[1:19:14] And all of the updates based off of the data that you've collected is just so important.
[1:19:21] One of the questions I wanted to get a little bit further explanation on was you talked about the
[1:19:27] having no contact with the domestic relations court? Is that something you can explain? Is there a place that that fits into some of the other things you'd be requesting in your future?
[1:19:41] Sure. It wasn't that we don't have contact with them. It was that we didn't have access to that information.
[1:19:47] So, for example, a divorce file was sealed to us.
[1:19:53] We could not see it.
[1:19:54] If there was a civil order protection contingent with a divorce, we couldn't see it
[1:20:00] for purposes of first parent's court.
[1:20:03] That was information that was blocked and not allowed to be utilized by us.
[1:20:10] So, we realized that that was an enormous problem quickly.
[1:20:15] I think, in January and we immediately went to the Chief Judge's office to make sure that we had those avenues of information open to us.
[1:20:25] And the Chief Judge's office was amenable and we got access to it very, very quickly.
[1:20:30] So we do have access to that information now when we need it.
[1:20:36] Great. Okay. I just wanted to follow up on that point.
[1:20:38] So thank you. I don't have anything else.
[1:20:40] Thank you.
[1:20:41] most of it. I know we have some other follow-up items that I'll be looking forward to. Appreciate it.
[1:20:47] Commissioner Aguilar. Thank you, Chairman and Attorney General. Thank you for being here.
[1:20:53] You promoted me. Sorry. I'm sorry. Okay.
[1:21:01] Right. We're good. You know, when I was in Springfield, I sponsored many crime bills and one of
[1:21:06] a few of them were confiscation of assets and bank accounts and so forth.
[1:21:11] I believe that like you said, hit him in the pocketbook and slow them down and breaks
[1:21:16] up their network.
[1:21:17] The only thing I'll come up with ever went to jail on was tax evasion.
[1:21:22] So it will utilize every tool we have.
[1:21:24] Hit him in the pocketbook and in terms of juvenile, usually a child is not born criminal.
[1:21:30] Usually there's an adult involved, it's kind of like a fake end of you familiar with child
[1:21:34] seconds that's behind that, and is there additional charges if you find the adult who's
[1:21:41] involved in putting up children to do crime? Is there additional charges at the end of
[1:21:46] each or can face and what's the change is of proving it and the cost behind all that?
[1:21:53] It's difficult for that, for unless you show a direct connection that they put somebody up
[1:22:00] it to do it, has it been done absolutely, is it something that we see every day, not really,
[1:22:08] but
[1:22:08] the juvenile crime is a huge problem right now and I think we're all very aware that a child who's
[1:22:15] 12 years old doesn't come up with the idea to go car jacks on one on their own. I think we know that.
[1:22:20] I think you mentioned there's an increase of child above. We haven't seen an increase. We've seen
[1:22:25] decrease in crime all over the system and almost every category including
[1:22:31] carjacking. So what we want to do is have an approach that gives kids a
[1:22:39] different alternative. And most of our ideas with regard to this pilot program
[1:22:44] emanated from us being moms. I have four children. I raise them through their
[1:22:50] age years, that's not easy, but a lot of times to get a teenager through those turbulent
[1:22:57] times, you just have to keep them busy. And that's what this pilot does. He keeps them
[1:23:02] busy from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. when they're most likely to get in trouble. But it also
[1:23:07] keeps them busy in a way that helps them with learning enrichment, job training, computer
[1:23:13] programming, and cognitive behavioral therapy. That's what we're focused on is making sure
[1:23:19] we get them turned around. Not just punished. Absolutely. That's one of which is mentioned at
[1:23:26] today's the anniversary of Sheriff Deputy Officer Raphael Woodlaw who the end of watch happened
[1:23:35] the year ago today in July of 2024. My condolences to the family, the Woodlaw family. Thank you.
[1:23:46] Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Trevor.
[1:23:50] Thank you chair.
[1:23:52] And thank you, uh,
[1:23:56] Stacey attorney, uh,
[1:23:57] O'Neill Burke for all the great work they're doing.
[1:24:03] we've heard from some of the other, uh,
[1:24:07] parts of county government that are involved in law enforcement.
[1:24:12] And one of the things that strikes me is there's a little bit of a sort of a toothpaste tube thing going on that you push down a one end and it comes up in somebody else's budget.
[1:24:23] We heard from the public defender about how some of the priorities you're setting, you know, has some impact on their budget because they've had to pay over time for attorneys in certain cases.
[1:24:38] And, you know, we are all dealing with finite budgets, and I'm looking at your budget for budget numbers for the past year, and I know you've prioritized a done violence, you've prioritized these switches, which I think is really important.
[1:24:55] Are there aspects of your budget things that you have essentially de-emphasized over your predecessor in order to sort of shift resources into this?
[1:25:08] Not that I'm coming to off-hand, but I'm going to defer to John. Have we de-emphasized anything?
[1:25:15] No, Commissioner. We haven't de-emphasized anything. It's really been managing across the office and making do with what we have in the budget.
[1:25:23] think is the best way to put it. That doesn't mean that we are fully staffed or even close.
[1:25:30] There are many activities that will benefit either from technology investments and enhancements
[1:25:35] and efficiency as we move forward or by sheer adding positions as we've indicated in our budget
[1:25:43] request. We understand there are limited resources, but the core activities have to get done and
[1:25:50] And we're working on how do we describe the impact on the movement of cases and the
[1:25:57] disposition times of cases as we move forward in the budget process.
[1:26:02] I think the public defender made reference to describing workload rather than case loads
[1:26:08] in his remarks this morning.
[1:26:10] And I think we've taken the same approach internally to look at what are the real workload
[1:26:15] drivers because technology has protects a lot but it also demands a lot in order to manage
[1:26:24] it and to get the job done right and those resources we don't have them right now and
[1:26:30] that's how we are trying to figure out how we measure that workload impact because it
[1:26:34] may be fewer cases but the quantity of information and evidence demands the resources in order
[1:26:40] to still manage those cases.
[1:26:43] One other question that I've got, I'm this actually comes out of, meaning that your office
[1:26:50] had with LGBTQ elective officials earlier this year, and it also kind of goes to setting
[1:26:56] priorities as well as what is required by state law, and this has to do with filing objections
[1:27:03] to name changes. And just to describe the issue briefly is that your office is filing objections
[1:27:13] to name changes for people who have criminal records.
[1:27:19] Fell any criminal records?
[1:27:21] Fell any criminal records and this is somewhat, I wouldn't say disproportionately, but it
[1:27:29] is having an impact on transgender people who are trying to change their names.
[1:27:34] It's a population that tends to have higher than average rates of having criminal convictions in their past,
[1:27:49] and when those objections are filed, the people who are trying to change their names face additional bureaucratic and financial hurdles to essentially achieve that.
[1:28:02] Um, and I'm trying to, this meeting was several months ago, but the way it was described
[1:28:10] by your staff is that you are required to do this, and also that you have several attorneys
[1:28:19] on staff that are, this is, this is a big chunk of their work.
[1:28:23] And I'm wondering if you can describe that process a little bit.
[1:28:26] Sure, absolutely.
[1:28:27] We've done a lot of work on this, and I want to bring up our expert on this.
[1:28:32] to answer this question.
[1:28:38] Good afternoon.
[1:28:39] My name is Eve Atloysson.
[1:28:40] I work for the state's attorney's office.
[1:28:42] Thank you for your question.
[1:28:43] I participated in several meetings with various elected,
[1:28:48] some attorneys that were accompanied them.
[1:28:50] I believe when it was all set and done,
[1:28:52] we have three meetings hearing about the issues related to name change.
[1:28:57] One thing I do want to emphasize now is that the individuals who
[1:29:04] change petition is at issue, do much more than name changes. So that is not staff that is just
[1:29:13] allocated to that process. They are part of our civil division. They have full caseloads
[1:29:18] on top of that additional responsibility. Generally, when we have attorneys that go into those
[1:29:24] court room on that issue, they are asked or invited in by the judge due to a voluntary disclosure
[1:29:32] by the individual seeking an EM change that they have some criminal background.
[1:29:39] After the meetings and learning more about some of the hurdles that were being faced by individuals trying to get an EM change,
[1:29:48] we took additional steps to do research and understand various issues with the process.
[1:29:54] One thing that we did was we met with several members of the Illinois State Police.
[1:29:59] Okay.
[1:30:00] They are the entity that we would refer people to if they had indicated that they had a prior of
[1:30:10] criminal background. We did learn through that process that the information that was
[1:30:16] gleaned from the Illinois State Police was information solely based on a person's Illinois criminal history.
[1:30:23] So, given all of the information that we received, we have now worked over the last couple
[1:30:30] of months alongside with the first assistant, other members of our staff and our civil
[1:30:36] division to create a proposed change to our policy or our process.
[1:30:43] We did not have a written policy or our process on how we do that so that it will be more
[1:30:48] and more efficient for individuals who are seeking that process as you know the state's
[1:30:54] attorney's office is a very big entity. So turning a ship like that does take some time
[1:31:00] and also requires several layers of review. All aspects of our office interact with each other
[1:31:07] so we need to ensure that we are able to implement change in a seamless fashion. One thing I do want
[1:31:15] emphasize that the state's attorney has spoken of before is our civil attorneys do not always
[1:31:21] have access to certain records that are important for this process. So a big chunk of the work
[1:31:28] we're doing is figuring out how to ensure that our ASA has have access to information they need,
[1:31:34] so they can make the best decisions possible and how we'll proceed when a name change petition
[1:31:40] has been filed. We've been alerted by the judge and we know there is some criminal background.
[1:31:45] We are trying very hard to balance two interests that don't have to be competing, but do have to be balanced.
[1:31:52] And though that interest is ensuring that we can track if there is serious felony conduct in a person's background,
[1:32:03] or conduct that may be misdemeanor conduct, but something like a domestic battery, which we are concerned about violence.
[1:32:10] We want to make sure that we are securely tracking the change in name.
[1:32:15] However, we want to balance that with ensuring that individuals who are seeking to get a name change for purely appropriate reasons are not being required to jump through a lot of obstacles in hopes that others who may not voluntarily disclose information do not.
[1:32:34] So after all of those meetings in that entire process we did recognize that there are ways we could do this better.
[1:32:40] and we are working now to finalize and implement those changes that we think are reasonable and appropriate based on the circumstances in front of us.
[1:32:50] I truly appreciate that, but I also want to point out one thing.
[1:32:54] You mentioned that they were acting in information that was voluntarily disclosed.
[1:33:01] The form that people are filing for these name changes actually has that question on it.
[1:33:08] So essentially either you voluntarily disclose that you have a criminal history or whatever, or, you know, you're...
[1:33:20] You're committing a crime right there and then one of the things that came out during those discussions, a question that I asked is, whether or not, women who are filing for a name change after marriage are asked the same question.
[1:33:35] And from what I understand, they are not.
[1:33:38] Sorry, go ahead.
[1:33:41] And the concern about name changes, or the potential concern for name changes is that, you know,
[1:33:49] people are evading full of by changing their name, and there's a, there's a, there's a, there's like,
[1:33:56] change your name after marriage could accomplish the same thing in theory, and so I just wanted to point out that this came out of a concern.
[1:34:04] I think amongst the people in call is that we are treating transgender people in a different
[1:34:13] man, seeking to change as a different man or than we treat people who are seeking to
[1:34:18] change as for more culturally accepted reasons. So I just wanted to point that out, but I
[1:34:24] do appreciate the meetings that you had with us and the efforts that your office is doing. So thank
[1:34:31] Thank you and I just want to say that I appreciate that note that was a topic of conversation that we did discuss.
[1:34:40] We are following this statutory requirements. Currently the statute provides a process where certain name change positions then come to our office and then they are in our hands and we start the process of determining how we're going to handle those.
[1:35:01] It's if that juncture that we are working to make what I think is some very positive change.
[1:35:06] I do want to know that when this was brought to our attention by you and several other
[1:35:13] elected and we appreciated the feedback, we were working off of a continuation of the process
[1:35:19] that had previously been implemented by the prior administration. We had not been alerted
[1:35:25] prior to that that there were any concerns or issues with that process. So we do appreciate that
[1:35:32] we got that alert from all of you and we have been working very diligently to try to do better.
[1:35:38] And again, I appreciate that. I also want to note that this is a problem that also needs
[1:35:42] solution at the state level and that there are people working on it. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[1:35:48] Those are all my questions.
[1:35:56] Good afternoon. Good afternoon.
[1:35:59] You know, everyone here knows that prior to this job, I was a classroom teacher for a couple of decades.
[1:36:07] So I'd like for you to share a little bit more about this choose to change program and specifically,
[1:36:12] who are you in partnership with at CPS?
[1:36:16] What is the financial ask of implementing this program?
[1:36:20] And where would the program actually be implemented, specifically is that a facility, a school just the details of the choose to change program?
[1:36:31] I'm going to hand it over to Evan again.
[1:36:33] I'm so grateful that you asked that question. I love talking about this.
[1:36:38] If that was on again.
[1:36:40] The choose for change program is implemented in some schools throughout the Chicago Public School system.
[1:36:46] The pilot that the state's attorney had referenced is the pilot that is focused on one court calendar in juvenile court that covers the 10th
[1:36:55] Police District in the city of Chicago. The 10th district crosses two communities, North Laundail and little village.
[1:37:03] We, during the process of transition, this was an idea that the state's attorney had at the beginning of her campaign.
[1:37:12] And she, I'm speaking for you, but I'm monorole.
[1:37:17] She really believed that we needed to try more innovative, we needed to have more innovative
[1:37:24] efforts for dealing with juveniles that were committing very serious crime.
[1:37:30] So one thing I want to emphasize, and I will answer your question, but I think it's important
[1:37:33] to give you some context, is that for this pilot program, the individuals who are eligible
[1:37:39] are males in that particular court calendar that are high school age and have committed
[1:37:47] a felony offense that would be detainable. So we are looking at children that by virtue of
[1:37:55] their conduct we would be seeking detention and this is an alternative to that. There are two
[1:38:01] crimes that their ineligible murder and sexual assault. The providers can't handle those types of
[1:38:09] serious crimes that you can think of, carjacking,
[1:38:12] because that's an MCD.
[1:38:15] Those types of cases are eligible.
[1:38:20] We worked to develop the program with several partners.
[1:38:23] We had Jadien Tau from the Chicago Public Schools
[1:38:26] who has since left and retired and is now working as a consultant.
[1:38:30] She's actually working with us as a project manager on this project.
[1:38:35] She has worked with individuals in CPS
[1:38:38] who are in the juvenile court system.
[1:38:41] We've also partnered with two service providers
[1:38:45] in the Northland ill community and a little village community.
[1:38:49] The Northland ill service provider is firehouse arts council.
[1:38:53] The little village provider is new life centers.
[1:38:57] New life centers is extremely integrated
[1:38:59] in the choose for change programming,
[1:39:02] particularly at fairer good high school.
[1:39:05] And in that Northland ill community,
[1:39:07] there are several high schools that offer
[1:39:09] choose for change programming.
[1:39:11] The reason why we wanted to implement that in the process
[1:39:14] is it gives children who are in that programming
[1:39:17] a running start through their day
[1:39:19] because they are getting all of the support at school
[1:39:22] and the state's attorney's idea is
[1:39:24] if that we had juveniles getting that support at school
[1:39:27] and that was carried through an after school programming
[1:39:30] that was within the year with the choose for change model
[1:39:33] and piggybacked on that model
[1:39:35] that we could successfully turn behaviors around.
[1:39:40] The proposal that we have right now,
[1:39:42] which we have been working very closely with the JAC
[1:39:46] to get funding, as well as outside funders.
[1:39:51] The proposal creates a system where,
[1:39:56] and if a juvenile comes into court,
[1:39:59] and we would be seeking detention,
[1:40:01] we would be making an offer to their public defender
[1:40:04] them to participate in this programming. The offer requires that that juvenile submit to an
[1:40:11] educational assessment by the CPS personnel that is present in juvenile court. The educational
[1:40:18] assessment is to figure out how we get that student in school. The programming does not require
[1:40:24] that a child go to HUS for change school, although it is encouraged. We want to make sure that we
[1:40:34] child be enrolled in school and that they're being agreement that attendance and participation
[1:40:40] and conduct in school can be reported into the juvenile court system.
[1:40:46] Once the child goes through the educational assessment based on geography, they will then
[1:40:52] be referred to either new life or firehouse arts council.
[1:40:56] The reason why we picked that court calendar and we picked the time to district is because
[1:41:00] so close to juvenile court that our service providers can actually get representatives to juvenile
[1:41:06] court for a soft handoff approach for that youth. We have partnered with pre-trial services
[1:41:13] in juvenile court. We've partnered with the juvenile court judges. We have presented to the
[1:41:18] public defender's office and we are ultimately, as I said, seeking funding through the JAC and
[1:41:25] We're really, we're working hard towards a grant and if you want detailed information on what
[1:41:31] that funding looks like, I'll at step out of my seat and turn it over to John Hurricane.
[1:41:36] But that has been the process.
[1:41:37] In addition, we did partner with representatives from Chicago Credit, Ernie Duncan and some of his staff.
[1:41:46] They participated in some of the program modeling.
[1:41:48] We also had the University of Chicago Crime Lab participate.
[1:41:54] They were going to be doing tracking and checking for efficacy throughout our process.
[1:42:00] And we also as I indicated before partnered with new life and firehouse to develop that after school programming.
[1:42:08] So who's working with the young people during the school hours and what is the projected amount you're requesting through Jacy?
[1:42:16] John, do you have the exact number?
[1:42:19] I'm going to switch with John for that one.
[1:42:24] John, hurry ahead and chief financial officer.
[1:42:26] Commissioner, it's a little more than $900,000 for the first year of the pilot program.
[1:42:32] The two contract request will be before this committee at the September board meeting,
[1:42:36] so we've already gone through procurement,
[1:42:39] and those two contract requests have been referred to the finance committee for the September board meeting.
[1:42:45] So there will be a great deal of information available then.
[1:42:49] We're also still working on the funding agreement with the Justice Advisory Council.
[1:42:57] We have traded drafts, but our hope is that will also be presented to the board
[1:43:02] at the September meeting to get everything approved at the same time.
[1:43:07] Yes, because I would be interested in what the $900,000 is for if the locations are already established.
[1:43:15] community based organizations are already established so the program has the place to be housed
[1:43:20] and then I think there's some component I wasn't completely clear that's taking place at the actual school.
[1:43:27] So I'm curious as to what the $900,000 would cover.
[1:43:33] Commissioner the budgets are that's the maximum amount of funding the budgets are sort of tiered based upon
[1:43:40] The number of referrals into the program, I don't have the specific data with me right now.
[1:43:45] We will be presenting on that as I said at the September board meeting,
[1:43:49] because those budgets are included in the contracts that we've presented for approval.
[1:43:56] But they are for addition of personnel primarily in order to deal with the numbers of youth that may be referred.
[1:44:04] and I think it's in tears of five or so youth that the costs would escalate based upon the
[1:44:11] demands upon each of the programs, but we can get you more information about that.
[1:44:14] Please, too, because did you just say that the primarily is that we're staffing?
[1:44:19] Yeah, it's primarily for people. I think the vet can speak more to that one.
[1:44:24] It's like a hot seat after it just keeps going back and forth.
[1:44:27] Yeah. So the after school programming component would offer five days a week of after school
[1:44:34] services for each juvenile for a total of up to 20 hours per week. So the goal here is to have
[1:44:41] the juvenile in school all day potentially and choose for a change program that might not always be
[1:44:46] the case. And then after school, the juvenile would have an opportunity five days a week to go to
[1:44:51] programming after school that included a continuation of cognitive, behavioral therapy,
[1:44:58] tutoring, mental,
[1:45:00] We're covering case management interactions with the family as well as vocational exposure.
[1:45:09] That's the model of the programming that we're trying to encompass after school.
[1:45:14] It's roughly $700 a day per child to detain them in the juvenile detention center,
[1:45:20] so the goal is to provide programming that alleviates that burden.
[1:45:23] And we are incorporating these kids into programming that exists.
[1:45:30] However, the programming models will be slightly enhanced based on the population of juveniles
[1:45:37] that are coming in.
[1:45:39] And there are specific ratios to how many staff per child that comes into the programming.
[1:45:48] So when John indicated that a big part of the funding cost was related to additional
[1:45:53] staff, it would be staff that would be necessary to absorb incoming referrals from the juvenile
[1:45:59] court system. That is, that's basically what the costs are for. They are very detailed
[1:46:06] in the budgetary request, but that's what the model is aimed to do. Is this model based on any
[1:46:14] model around the country? Where did it come from? This is unique, I believe, and that's why it's so
[1:46:21] important to have University of Chicago in there and measuring and documenting everything that's happening.
[1:46:28] So the numbers, I believe, it's $750 day to detain a child.
[1:46:36] We can handle for the same amount of money, 25 to 30 children in their pretrial period.
[1:46:44] It's a significant expansion of who we can serve.
[1:46:48] And I think it's, I'm hopeful.
[1:46:49] It's going to be more effective. I just want to add as well, ma'am, that there is no programming in the juvenile court system currently in the pre trial space.
[1:47:02] So we hear a lot about a lot about programming for justice involved youth.
[1:47:07] The majority of that program occurs post-dejudication, but there is a significant period of time when a child is brought into the system.
[1:47:15] where they, where the case is working its way through the system,
[1:47:20] and services are really needed in that time, and there are no other options.
[1:47:24] When we presented this programming to the judge in that calendar,
[1:47:29] we were actually surprised by her response to us.
[1:47:33] She was extremely enthusiastic, and she told us,
[1:47:36] and no one certain terms. If she has almost no other option for juveniles
[1:47:40] that come into her courtroom in that pretrial space,
[1:47:43] She either has to put them into tension or some them back to the situation that they were in without any supports and any opportunity to divert that conduct.
[1:47:56] And so I think there's been an overwhelming amount of support and excitement, not only in the juvenile court, but with the JAC for this programming concept,
[1:48:10] because it is uniquely situated in that pre-trial pre-adjudication space, and we just don't
[1:48:17] have anything else that's serving those kids at that very pivotal time.
[1:48:22] I understand you mentioned the University of Chicago Crime Lab, are they going to be developing
[1:48:30] the metrics by which this program success will be measured?
[1:48:34] They will be assisting us in the development of the metrics and then assisting us in
[1:48:38] the tracking.
[1:48:39] And what is the maximum participation of young people in this program?
[1:48:47] Thank you so much for that.
[1:48:49] So this is a heavy law day, so I have a question that I asked Burke.
[1:48:56] And that is, in all of these offices, there's a hiring need, there's a staffing need.
[1:49:02] And this week, the National Bar Association is down the street,
[1:49:06] celebrating their 100th year from July 26 to August 1st. Does your office have any presents there in Iraq?
[1:49:17] Yes, we have several of our supervisors are actively involved and our chief of staff is actively involved.
[1:49:24] But he is on a town notification this week. Otherwise he would be there every single day.
[1:49:27] But yes, we are actively involved in that group.
[1:49:29] So what does that look like relative to your office, is that a hospitality room, is that just meet and greet what is that?
[1:49:38] And as this is an opportunity to have very talented practitioners of the law in one space, I'd imagine that there should be some mechanism to catch in a view, whatever fancy where you want to use this particular talent pool.
[1:49:54] I know Garvin's been, but he's, unfortunately, not here, but I can definitely circle back with him and get you the answer to that.
[1:50:02] I thank you so much.
[1:50:04] Thank you.
[1:50:06] What actions can be taken by the county to adjust the CCSAO's turnover assumptions to align with actual trends?
[1:50:14] I know we've talked a lot about staffing and trends and allowing the office to hire at levels that meet its operational workload.
[1:50:23] workload. I think first and foremost, we have to, our attrition rate has to be adjusted from
[1:50:29] eight and a half percent to a historically accurate three percent, but I'm going to turn to
[1:50:34] John. Just really quickly, I want to just chime in on this question. What do you attribute to the
[1:50:41] high attrition rate that you're experiencing? You know, a lot of it is COVID, COVID blew a whole in
[1:50:49] society every single sector and, you know, we had remote, we had attorneys that are very
[1:50:57] young where we're first job for many attorneys and there wasn't a lot of training opportunities
[1:51:05] going on.
[1:51:06] So I think when you're remote the affinity that those bonds don't form and so that was part
[1:51:13] of it that there was a lot of it but we're committed to building that back so did you have
[1:51:18] Thank you.
[1:51:20] Yes.
[1:51:20] Thank you.
[1:51:21] John, her hand for Chief Financial Officer D.
[1:51:24] It starts with the funding, so we have been in active discussions with the budget
[1:51:28] office about the need to restore that funding just to maintain our hiring ability.
[1:51:36] We are also seeking additional resources for the training that the state's attorney has
[1:51:41] described so that it would greatly enhance our training capacity not only for the existing
[1:51:47] staff, but for the staff that we need to grow into occupying, that in order to get there,
[1:51:55] we need to engage and to retain these professionals and looking at the data that we do
[1:52:05] have access to about the folks who left the office over the last several years. What we've seen
[1:52:09] is it is the younger attorneys who tend to be the ones that are leaving in the last several
[1:52:14] It's not the 20, 20, 25, 30 year experience lawyers, it's the ones who've been there for a year to say seven years and there are a lot of causes, I'm sure the state attorney can speak to many of them, but some of them are driven by our inability to fill positions and take some of the workload off of them that places too many demands on them, depending on their assignments and the nature of the work that they do.
[1:52:45] And it became a spiral, the more work they had, the more people laughed, the more people laughed,
[1:52:52] the more work they had.
[1:52:53] It became an unending spiral.
[1:52:56] So those are things that why we need that personnel quickly.
[1:53:01] That's exactly why we have to address that need quickly because that was a major cause of burnout
[1:53:07] for people.
[1:53:08] And what we do is difficult.
[1:53:11] When you have spent your entire day talking to a mother whose child has been murdered or a woman whose been gang raped, that weighs on you mentally.
[1:53:21] That is, and you have to experience that with them enough to be able to go sell that to a jury.
[1:53:29] That's that weighs on people, and I think we don't acknowledge what post-traumatic trauma there can be for people who experience that second hand.
[1:53:39] And so that's something that we have started to address, like how do you recognize post-traumatic stress?
[1:53:46] How do you recognize that in other people and what do you do to mitigate for that?
[1:53:50] So that's been one of the things that we're developing for a lunch and learn.
[1:53:53] We've been working with Nami in order to address what does that look like for us?
[1:53:59] How do we recognize that relentless stress and that it's a difficult job?
[1:54:05] We need to recognize that we need to make sure that our assistance and our victim witness
[1:54:10] on our investigators are getting the support they need in order to address that.
[1:54:15] Thank you.
[1:54:19] What metrics or evaluation frameworks, and you talked a lot about gun violence at the beginning,
[1:54:25] are in place to assess the impact of new gun violence prosecution policies,
[1:54:31] particularly the shift in detention and sentencing strategy on case outcomes and public safety.
[1:54:38] I know you made some different policy decisions very early.
[1:54:42] So we are looking at gun rates or the crimes committed with guns. Those rates are coming down.
[1:54:48] That would. It's not conclusive, but it's an indicator. It's still very early. We are six months
[1:54:56] And I want to see what it looks like a year in.
[1:54:59] I want to see what are the drivers that are helping,
[1:55:03] what are the drivers that are hurting?
[1:55:04] If we're not seeing progress,
[1:55:06] if we're not seeing the impact of our policy,
[1:55:09] making a difference, then I want to know that.
[1:55:12] I want to know as soon as we can,
[1:55:14] so that we can pivot and try something else.
[1:55:17] But as it stands right now,
[1:55:19] we are seeing crime numbers coming down.
[1:55:21] We are seeing gun violence coming down,
[1:55:23] and those are positive indicators.
[1:55:24] Okay, but specifically, do you have a metrics or an evaluation framework in place to measure?
[1:55:32] If it's the policy, that's indicating this drop in gun crimes or gun violence, or is it
[1:55:39] all of the other work that's happening in communities and community-based organizations
[1:55:44] hiring at the city level of 30,000 young people?
[1:55:47] Like, I'm specifically interested in how you're measuring the effectiveness of the policy
[1:55:52] that you put forward.
[1:55:58] I'm the director of policy in the state's turnies office, so when we implemented these policies
[1:56:05] coming in the door, we were not prepared for how significant the deficits were in our ability
[1:56:13] to track our data.
[1:56:15] It is a task that without additional resources and a data management system is literally insurmountable.
[1:56:26] We have assistance states attorneys that are tracking by hand things that you talked about that would be metrics we would use to evaluate.
[1:56:34] case outcomes, detention outcomes, all of those things. It is incredibly difficult to hone or
[1:56:42] assess that kind of data with no management system. That being said yesterday I offered a
[1:56:50] position to a person who already worked for us who was working on a grant funded position, but
[1:56:57] agreed to come over to the policy team in September.
[1:57:02] She is an analyst and her primary task is going to be creating
[1:57:08] metrics to evaluate the impact of our policies and
[1:57:12] working closely with our ASAs and the data we do have so that we can
[1:57:17] appropriately evaluate them.
[1:57:20] It has taken us time to put a person in place who is able to do that
[1:57:25] because of the priorities of getting ASAs in the courtroom, frankly, the priority of staffing policy
[1:57:32] is a little bit lower down on the list, much to my secret, but it's the way it is.
[1:57:38] But I'm incredibly excited to have the opportunity to have her work on that.
[1:57:42] And I hope that next time we are here, we are going to have metrics. I will tell you that
[1:57:48] without a data management system, it's going to be really difficult for us to call that information
[1:57:53] in a way that's meaningful, but I agree with you that it's important that we're measuring.
[1:57:59] And so we're going to use the resources that we currently have and the skills of the people
[1:58:04] who currently work for us to try to accomplish that.
[1:58:07] Understood. Is there a data management system that you all are considering in particular?
[1:58:11] I'm going to switch out.
[1:58:21] Yes. We are looking at system options and working with the public defender's office in order
[1:58:28] identify what my work across platforms, I believe, is also engagement with the Chief Judge's
[1:58:34] Office as well because we all encounter similar issues when it comes to case management
[1:58:39] and access to data.
[1:58:42] So we haven't made a decision and there will be a procurement process that we'll have
[1:58:47] to go through in order to make that final assessment and sort of pick the system.
[1:58:53] But we are working with the major stakeholders in order to get there.
[1:58:58] We've paused on the existing development of a system that was under development for reasons
[1:59:04] that event just identified that there were shortcomings that needed to be assessed and
[1:59:12] work with the other stakeholders in order to figure out a path forward so that we all
[1:59:17] have useful data and that we're all, for like a better term, singing from the same songbook.
[1:59:24] Any idea, any early numbers on what that system may cost?
[1:59:31] We don't have any estimates right now of what a comprehensive case management system will
[1:59:36] cost in the criminal's and the felony and misdemeanor criminal's side of the office.
[1:59:41] It's too early to tell.
[1:59:43] Okay, thank you.
[1:59:45] How is the CCSAO planning to sustain the work of the gun crimes strategy unit after ARPA funding
[1:59:52] in, and are there any state or federal,
[1:59:57] at positive, federal, grant opportunities.
[2:00:00] Being pursued for this purpose, as we know that the ARPA monies will be exhausted.
[2:00:05] I am pursuing every single grant opportunity there is, and gun crimes is still an issue nationwide.
[2:00:15] There are still grant opportunities available.
[2:00:18] Our gun crimes strategy unit is comprised of eight different states attorneys that are deployed any time.
[2:00:25] There's a gun traffic in case any time a case that's coming out of C.J.
[2:00:28] at any time, it's a significant case that implicates firearms in a multi-to-to-the-voice.
[2:00:36] So we're committed to keeping this unit as strong as we possibly can.
[2:00:42] And even I believe there's one or two ASAs in there that are paid by our
[2:00:47] preference, but we will find the resources to make sure that we keep this unit up and running
[2:00:52] as much as we can, because that is one of the greatest challenges that we're facing right now
[2:00:58] as gun crimes.
[2:01:00] If I make, I have to add to what the state's attorney said.
[2:01:04] For the 2026 budget request, those positions are integrated into the corporate budget request.
[2:01:12] So there's a mechanism in place to recognize the further use of the ARPA funding through
[2:01:19] and ever it's exhausted in 2026, but we've already anticipated the need to continue those positions as a part of the corporate budget.
[2:01:28] And as the states are incentive, there are other opportunities to add to the resources we're certainly exploring them.
[2:01:35] Thank you so much for that. Just a couple more questions.
[2:01:39] It's actually related back to the case management question.
[2:01:43] So what timeline and resources are needed to move the case management system out of the internal
[2:01:51] design phase and into active development and how will this modernization enhance press
[2:01:57] the material efficiency and transparency?
[2:02:02] Those are the big questions we're trying to answer right now by working with the different
[2:02:07] stakeholders to figure out what we can do together and what we need to do to serve our
[2:02:12] needs, so we don't have a firm timeline. We're still early in the process of identifying
[2:02:19] all those design needs that we're not near development. And my hope is that when we come back
[2:02:28] in October at the time of the budget hearings, we'll have more details on the path forward,
[2:02:35] but we really don't have specifics at this time. I see how much, well, this is this
[2:02:42] I have a question, but I'm curious about what the issues and how you're in, how much
[2:02:47] of it is related to salary, like what we're offering relative to private industry.
[2:02:55] There was a significant increase in our salary for our starting assistance.
[2:03:00] I believe the starting salary is $92,000 now, which when I tell states attorneys who started
[2:03:06] when I started, they're a little bit shocked by that number, and I don't think salary
[2:03:12] impacting it. I don't think that is our hindrance right now. I see. So with only this is my final
[2:03:19] question. So with only half of vacant positions projected to be field by the end of the year,
[2:03:26] what specific support budgetary administrative otherwise? There's your office need to accelerate the
[2:03:32] critical hiring, particularly for ASAs.
[2:03:37] It is purely funding.
[2:03:40] We are at the limits of our current appropriation for salaries.
[2:03:44] So as I have mentioned before,
[2:03:47] seeking the funding necessary to be able to fill positions at a faster rate
[2:03:51] is what we've submitted with our budget request for 2026.
[2:03:55] There aren't any other significant impediments other than
[2:03:59] available dollars to be able to pay people if we were to make offers.
[2:04:05] Valerie, but it's us having money in the budget paid people.
[2:04:09] Thank you so much.
[2:04:11] You're welcome.
[2:04:15] Good afternoon.
[2:04:17] Good afternoon.
[2:04:17] Thank you all.
[2:04:18] Have you eaten?
[2:04:20] No, but I'm never so it's okay.
[2:04:23] So first of all, I really want to thank you for the hard work and the expedited efforts
[2:04:30] that your team put forth with regard to the Willow James case, the young lady that was shot
[2:04:35] in the head after school in Harvey, Illinois. That was one of my dancers and my dance
[2:04:40] troops, so it was very, very difficult. So I was glad to hear from mom that everything is moving
[2:04:45] forward and it's moving swiftly and I appreciate that. So thank you and your team for your work.
[2:04:52] With regard to the youth program, I understand that what you're going to do now is just a pilot,
[2:04:57] But do you have an idea of how many months you would need to see and how much of a survey
[2:05:03] do you, or how much feedback would you require before you expanded to other school districts
[2:05:07] specifically in the Southland?
[2:05:10] I want to see at least a semester in school.
[2:05:14] We know that that component with CPS, it's a good timeline for us because that's also, it
[2:05:22] could take six months to a year for a juvenile case to get to trial.
[2:05:25] that gives us a nice chunk of time to assess. Have they gotten arrested again? Have there
[2:05:32] absenteeism decrease? Have we seen those measures of success of this program? Six months at least
[2:05:40] in order to get that. So that all depends on our goal is to get the funding for this pilot to start
[2:05:46] with the school year. So that's where we're pushing as hard as fast as we can to get that in place
[2:05:53] because of that measurement,
[2:05:55] because we really want the school here,
[2:05:58] and children do better with structure.
[2:06:00] And if we're starting this program
[2:06:02] with the start of the school year,
[2:06:05] that's a good structure to utilize.
[2:06:08] So the measure of success is going to be
[2:06:11] as if we're seeing the markers that we anticipate
[2:06:14] that we're going to see, we want to expand quickly.
[2:06:18] And that's going to be,
[2:06:20] but I'm going to turn that over to a bit.
[2:06:23] just for technical reasons,
[2:06:26] expansion would likely not be geographical in this sense
[2:06:30] that it would go to like, it would go to Markham, for example,
[2:06:35] what expansion would look like is different court calls
[2:06:38] within the juvenile system.
[2:06:40] We want to make sure that we're being very thoughtful
[2:06:43] about how we expand.
[2:06:44] So we want to make sure that we have judges
[2:06:47] who are willing to work with us in the programming.
[2:06:50] We want to make sure that the courtrooms
[2:06:52] have a specific day every month just for cases that involve this programming because we want
[2:06:59] those court dates to look more like a staffing, if you will, than a general court date.
[2:07:05] To the state's attorneys point earlier, we're not our metrics for success,
[2:07:10] are not just going to be, are you showing up, did you commit another crime?
[2:07:14] The metrics of success are going to be very unique to that child, and so we want to make sure
[2:07:19] that we are staffing those cases with participatory personnel.
[2:07:26] I also want to correct myself from before,
[2:07:28] since we are talking about this program,
[2:07:31] I indicated that our programming would be the only juvenile
[2:07:34] programming in this space.
[2:07:35] Obviously we have pretrial services in probation,
[2:07:38] but it would be the programming of this type in that space.
[2:07:42] So I certainly don't want to give them short trips
[2:07:44] because they are doing incredible work every single day.
[2:07:46] But in mentioning them, I want to add that we do need to make sure that we're not overburdening
[2:07:53] those court calls. And so we have to work with our partners in pre-trial services in the judiciary
[2:08:00] and across the board to make sure that as we expand, we have appropriate personnel that can
[2:08:06] dedicate themselves to the demands of this type of programming. Okay, and that brings me to my next
[2:08:12] question. So with regard to the Southland, we don't have nor am I suggesting to build juvenile
[2:08:18] detention center. And we don't have that. But we are beginning to expand the restorative
[2:08:22] justice location. So is there any conversation where we could actually mirror the two or
[2:08:27] make some type of an alignment so that in the southern region they're actually sending those
[2:08:33] children over to the restorative justice locations. So right now, juveniles are not in restorative
[2:08:39] us to squint at all. There's solely geared towards adults. I have to say, did hear you talk about Harvey. I grew up in Pozen. So that is an area of very close to my heart.
[2:08:49] But we do not have mechanisms or levers in place right now to put juveniles in any RJCC programming. RJCC programming is geared solely for emerging adults in that 18 to 22 24 depending on location age group.
[2:09:09] Then also,
[2:09:16] we spoke earlier about meeting the like a more of a holistic aspect of the child.
[2:09:21] So we're not just looking at their behavior, but also looking at some of the resources.
[2:09:25] This is less of a question and more of a suggestion.
[2:09:27] We just gave over $10 million to prevent up to violence prevention programming.
[2:09:34] That's being awarded, and I was strongly suggest tapping into that list.
[2:09:38] It was a pretty extensive list of organizations that are providing wrap-around services specifically for this population.
[2:09:46] So I was suggest tapping into that.
[2:09:48] My next question would be with regard to rape kit testing.
[2:09:52] I know again, and I'm speaking from Harvey, that's where I'm from, homegrown.
[2:09:56] So we've always had an issue with rape kits not being tested either.
[2:10:00] There were not enough people to test.
[2:10:02] There was not the, whatever the case may be, a lot of women didn't receive the justice they deserve.
[2:10:08] because there was such a backlog and rape kits and some of them were not properly preserved.
[2:10:14] So what steps are being taken down to eliminate or decrease that backlog and then what's the
[2:10:21] reality of like when does testing stop where you just can't test them anymore because they're
[2:10:26] just no longer any good. On a time of copolis first assistant in the states attorney's office,
[2:10:31] thank you commissioner for that question and you're absolutely right particularly in the south
[2:10:35] suburbs, a lot of the law enforcement agencies that were collecting rape kits, those rape
[2:10:41] kits were not being turned over to the laboratories.
[2:10:44] So the law enforcement agency collects them, but then it has to go to a laboratory for
[2:10:49] the testing.
[2:10:50] If there is no request for the testing, then that testing isn't done.
[2:10:54] The states are talking about one of our priorities is this forensic unit.
[2:10:59] As part of that forensic unit, one of our assistant states are that we have now promoted
[2:11:03] to the deputy supervisor.
[2:11:04] he is going to be responsible for doing exactly that. So if there is a case where the lab
[2:11:11] has not completed the work, the part of his duties are going to be to coordinate with the lab
[2:11:16] to make sure that the lab work is done properly. If there is a need for additional testing,
[2:11:22] that's also going to be one of his duties and responsibilities to make sure. We're having some
[2:11:27] issues with the actual analysts that are doing the testing. So his responsibility and there's being
[2:11:33] challenged as to whether or not specific analysts meet the criteria.
[2:11:37] So his responsibility will also be to make sure that we have the right analysts that are
[2:11:42] testifying in the courtrooms.
[2:11:44] We need expert testimony.
[2:11:45] So part of his responsibility now is going to be finding the experts that we need that are
[2:11:50] scientists to make sure that we're doing that.
[2:11:53] But if a law enforcement agency keeps the rape kit and doesn't turn it over to the lab
[2:11:58] for testing, unless we are involved in the prosecution of that case, we will
[2:12:03] not have the opportunity to do that.
[2:12:06] I do know in the past that there had been
[2:12:08] a, once the scientists that was hired
[2:12:11] that we currently have now,
[2:12:13] that was part of her responsibility
[2:12:14] as to coordinate the testing with the labs.
[2:12:18] So this is what our new forensic unit
[2:12:19] is, that's exactly the reason why we want it and need it.
[2:12:23] Now, with the forensic unit,
[2:12:24] I know you mentioned there would be one person
[2:12:25] that's kind of overseeing it.
[2:12:27] Are we hiring additional staff to support?
[2:12:31] We want to.
[2:12:32] I mean, that's a one person.
[2:12:34] Yes, it's too much for one person right now.
[2:12:36] Right now, there was only a scientist.
[2:12:39] That's it.
[2:12:39] And she was doing all of this work.
[2:12:41] So we have hired the one,
[2:12:43] or we've promoted the one person
[2:12:45] into the deputy supervisor role for the scientists.
[2:12:48] We have hired what we call a lateral.
[2:12:50] In other words, she's a former assistant state attorney.
[2:12:53] She's left.
[2:12:54] She was in Washington State.
[2:12:56] She developed their entire forensic lab,
[2:12:59] which is the digital lab that we were talking about
[2:13:01] where you take all of the electronic data and dump and coordinate.
[2:13:06] So we have hired her.
[2:13:07] She's going to be starting at the end of August
[2:13:08] to help us stand up that unit.
[2:13:13] We do have a trial specialist that has been in the office.
[2:13:17] She's also, but again, we need more.
[2:13:19] They need to train down so that we can train across.
[2:13:23] Appreciate that response.
[2:13:24] Thank you.
[2:13:25] And then with regard to, you mentioned earlier,
[2:13:30] The different equipment and software, as you would need to basically do many of the things that you're looking to do progressively, is there any discussion with local jurisdiction
[2:13:40] to utilize their resources such as the flu system. I know that I've had the experience of actually observing it through
[2:13:48] Police Department and also Chicago High's
[2:13:51] Police Department and it does exactly what you're referring to.
[2:13:55] If you say I want to see all of them white Toyota
[2:13:59] Corrolos for the last five hours, it can narrow it down like that.
[2:14:03] So, if we until we get your request in place, is there any conversation that can be had with locals?
[2:14:11] If the local has that capability, absolutely we have been reaching out to the federal
[2:14:17] partners, the ATF, the FBI, to utilize as much of their capability as possible to until we have
[2:14:24] that.
[2:14:25] But that's not a guarantee, and we do not care priority.
[2:14:30] So there is not a universal CPD is universal to an extent of CPD has certain capabilities,
[2:14:39] but because the county is so large with so many different law enforcement entities, we're
[2:14:44] that they would ever have that capability.
[2:14:55] And actually thank you.
[2:14:57] I just have one last question.
[2:14:59] Looks like my colleague.
[2:15:00] I asked them all, which is a good thing. And you answered very well. Thank you. So with regard to the orders of protection, over the past two weeks, we've heard repeatedly about some people will have up to five or more orders of protection that never entered the system. And I know right now that's being captured manually. It's not really transfer and over to the other locations. I guess my concern is, why five? Why isn't that one order protection being carried over until exactly
[2:15:29] actually carried out. Why would a person need to recreate an order protection repeatedly
[2:15:35] if it was never served?
[2:15:37] So if an order protection is issued, what we call X-parta, which is when the survivor goes
[2:15:43] in alone without the respondent being there, they can get the X-parta order protection.
[2:15:48] There is a time limit as to how long that order protection will last. If it is not served, then
[2:15:54] they have to go in and ask for an extension. Sometimes the survivors will not want an
[2:15:59] extension because, as we all know, it's called the honeymoon phase.
[2:16:03] At that time, it's the cycle of violence.
[2:16:06] When they're in that honeymoon phase, that's where they like the relationship to stay,
[2:16:09] and they may not want to access the system, the criminal justice system or the civil system
[2:16:14] to extend the order of protection.
[2:16:17] But as we all know, the cycle of violence will continue.
[2:16:19] And so the next phase comes around, and then you'll have the explosive phase, and that's
[2:16:23] exactly when they're coming into the system to ask for assistance.
[2:16:27] So just because five priors were issued, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're in effect.
[2:16:34] And so what happens is when the petitioner comes in, the survivor comes in, they have to fill out that petition.
[2:16:40] That's what we didn't have access to. We didn't have access to the petitions that were being filed.
[2:16:45] And as we all know survivors, we want to give them as much opportunity to make the decisions for their own lives.
[2:16:52] Sometimes they don't want criminal charges, sometimes they only want civil orders of protection,
[2:16:57] the only want to go into the civil courts. I think what's also important to note that many
[2:17:02] of the survivors that testified at the hearing the other day talked about child custody and child
[2:17:09] and support child visitation, those types of things. Under the Illinois Domestic Relations Act,
[2:17:19] A order of protection is not intended to give permanent or long-term type of relief for those issues.
[2:17:29] Child custody, child support, visitation issues.
[2:17:33] Those are the types of things that you would get in a parentage courtroom or in a divorce courtroom,
[2:17:39] where there are more services that may be available for more permanent type of relief.
[2:17:44] So you can a judge can issue those that type of relief in an order of protection, but it's temporary.
[2:17:52] It is best done in those other courtrooms.
[2:17:55] And so the disconnect is in that situation where there are children that are involved.
[2:18:04] The domestic relations court are supposed to have those types of services that address those types of issues versus a criminal court judge,
[2:18:12] which has to make a decision on a split second type of in a situation where they're just issuing the orders of protection.
[2:18:20] It's not intended to be a permanent type of relief.
[2:18:24] Does that answer your question?
[2:18:25] It does.
[2:18:26] Thank you.
[2:18:29] And then with regard to the laws that were made to change the cannabis rule, are we looking at more releases anytime soon for those people that are still in the system that were not impacted immediately?
[2:18:43] You know, that's legislative on whether you have to go through an expungement or not.
[2:18:48] And we were more than happy to make sure people got those records expunged.
[2:18:55] I would like to see some legislation that it automatically happens,
[2:18:59] but that's an issue for Springfield.
[2:19:02] Somebody shouldn't have that as a criminal background, for example,
[2:19:06] that it's no longer a crime.
[2:19:07] So I would love to see that legislation.
[2:19:11] Thank you and whatever our office can do to us this. Please let us know. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
[2:19:18] Thank you. All right, state's attorney event on and John, we have approached the end. I'm the last one.
[2:19:26] And share our promise to be short.
[2:19:29] So I am going to be meeting with your office soon, very excited to meet with you. I will ask more questions in detail, but I think for the sake of time, I'm going to limit myself to three.
[2:19:40] First is a clarifying question, you know, as you mentioned, we are seeing crime going down,
[2:19:45] but domestic violence is going up.
[2:19:47] Is that in terms of cases or is it just a larger share of the crime committed?
[2:19:52] It's a larger share of the crime committed.
[2:19:55] Okay, so then the cases themselves are not-
[2:19:57] Well, okay, it's too cold.
[2:19:58] If I had 39 women murdered since beginning of the year, that's a number we haven't seen
[2:20:03] before.
[2:20:04] So I think it's a combination of both the percentages going up and the numbers are going up.
[2:20:09] Okay.
[2:20:09] Thank you for clarifying that. I think that is important to understand. And then you also briefly touched on expanding civil asset for future. And as Commissioner Britain mentioned, you know, I'm also equally interested in making sure that that doesn't indirectly impact individuals who are, you know, not the targets of that.
[2:20:32] Can you talk a little bit about the safeguards in place for the expansion? Is it only if they're is that an expansion it was we always had four attorneys in that unit
[2:20:42] And it was always utilized all over the system any time there was a network or a financial crime or cyber crime any type of that
[2:20:52] So it's just restaffing that making sure we have adequate personnel in that room and I agree with you
[2:20:59] I am not interested in taking a grandmother's car or house or anything like that.
[2:21:05] That is not what we're going after.
[2:21:08] We are going after networks of crime.
[2:21:11] We are going after organized crime, who are participating in narcotics or gun trafficking
[2:21:16] or human trafficking.
[2:21:18] We're interested in going after networks that are participating in financial crime or cyber crime.
[2:21:25] That's what we're interested in doing.
[2:21:27] And so, and thank you for clarifying that, but then, but then does that mean that the
[2:21:32] forfeiture happens after a conviction?
[2:21:36] Okay.
[2:21:36] So it's only after a conviction.
[2:21:38] Okay.
[2:21:38] Great.
[2:21:38] Thank you.
[2:21:39] And then the last question that I have, well, the items could be seized and held.
[2:21:48] But they're not forfeit until after a conviction.
[2:21:50] Okay.
[2:21:51] Thank you.
[2:21:52] And actually I'll just go back and now ask my last question, it's not my fault, I'm going to ask an additional question.
[2:21:59] Of the the women that are being murdered or subject to domestic violence.
[2:22:08] Do we know how many of those are transgender females?
[2:22:13] I don't. We can get back to you on that. We can get you that number. Okay, thank you.
[2:22:18] And then my last question is around data, we've talked a lot about data today, and your predecessor had a data dashboard that has since been taken down.
[2:22:29] Can you.
[2:22:30] So when we came in in December of 2024, there was a data dashboard on our website.
[2:22:36] The data dashboard reflected that the state's attorneys office in the entirety of 2024 had completed 14 jury trials.
[2:22:46] We do 14 jury trials in a morning, much less foreign entire year, so we knew that that dashboard
[2:22:53] did not adequately reflect or accurately reflect what the state's attorney's office was doing.
[2:22:59] So we immediately took that dashboard down.
[2:23:01] It is better not to give information, then to give w Hopefully an accurate information.
[2:23:06] So we have been diligent in working to get a data dashboard up and running.
[2:23:13] And today I saw the prototype of what our data dashboard for detention court is going to look like.
[2:23:21] And done do we have a day?
[2:23:23] When it's soon soon.
[2:23:25] So it's going to be soon.
[2:23:26] And I will tell you it is really fascinating.
[2:23:30] You can click on the city by ward.
[2:23:33] You can click on townships and it will give you an accurate reflection of every single crime that has committed
[2:23:39] in that ward, whether we ask for detention,
[2:23:43] whether it was a detainable offense,
[2:23:44] and what happened with it.
[2:23:46] So we are working very diligently
[2:23:48] to make sure that the data that we have,
[2:23:51] we can get up and available,
[2:23:53] but I'm not putting data out there unless it's accurate.
[2:23:57] So we are checking and rechecking that data
[2:24:00] as we put it up.
[2:24:01] So that's why I'm taking a little bit of time,
[2:24:03] but I'm glad to say it's gonna be a very, very soon.
[2:24:06] So okay, as close as we can get
[2:24:08] to an actual date would be fantastic.
[2:24:11] And we're going to follow up with you, make sure you have that date.
[2:24:14] Thank you.
[2:24:14] How is this data dashboard different?
[2:24:16] You mentioned that there was not enough or perhaps inaccurate information, and the previous
[2:24:23] data dashboard, what other differences it was just flat out wrong.
[2:24:27] It was not even accurate.
[2:24:30] It was just false.
[2:24:31] And so that's the number one, I'm not going to put false information out there.
[2:24:36] And if I don't have access to accurate information, I'm not just going to make up numbers and put them out there.
[2:24:42] That doesn't benefit anyone.
[2:24:44] I mean, that is a very strong.
[2:24:47] I made a very strong statement.
[2:24:49] It was false information was put up.
[2:24:53] Did you?
[2:24:53] Yes, I'll just elaborate a little bit.
[2:24:56] Because of some of the issues that we've already described about our own case management system.
[2:25:01] right now in our felony courtrooms across Cook County.
[2:25:05] We do not have a case management system that operates on a supported platform.
[2:25:10] In order for us to track our cases, it takes hours of data entry.
[2:25:15] And we don't have staff to do the data entry.
[2:25:18] So that falls on state attorneys.
[2:25:21] The system we have is called crimes.
[2:25:24] Crimes goes down very, very frequently and there would literally be no way in a sense
[2:25:30] dates turning assigned to a felony courtroom or even one of our specialized units could work
[2:25:36] a reasonable amount of hours in a day and enter the data that they would be required to
[2:25:41] enter in order for this programming that we currently have to actually function. So the information
[2:25:47] that was on the previous data dashboard was not information that was coming from our own record
[2:25:52] keeping. That information was coming from various other entities and it was being put together
[2:26:01] in some fashion and then put on our dashboard. We couldn't validate that data. So now that we
[2:26:08] are, we're doing what we can to keep track of our data and it's done through Excel spreadsheets,
[2:26:14] by hand, by our ASAs. But that data is then checked and validated off of external data sources
[2:26:22] that are reliable, such as the Odyssey system, sometimes CPDs data, we can check it off
[2:26:29] of that.
[2:26:30] So, the difference now is that the information that is posted on our desk, or that's posted
[2:26:37] on our website now, and the data dashboard that is coming will be data that is actually
[2:26:42] kept by our people internally, that has had some source of external validation so that we can
[2:26:50] ensure that we are posting things that are true and accurate.
[2:26:55] There wasn't a mechanism in place to test the accuracy of the information that was on
[2:27:01] the previous data dashboards that the general public had access to through the state's
[2:27:07] turning website.
[2:27:08] It was not state's turny data.
[2:27:12] And so this new dashboard will have individuals in your office providing the data points.
[2:27:18] and it is also going to be checked by your staff, is there a third party that is also going
[2:27:27] to have some kind of independent review not managed these systems before? I'm just curious.
[2:27:33] So I think like the best way to explain it would be let's say I'm in ASA assigned to a domestic
[2:27:38] violence courtroom and I'm tracking detention and I'm doing that on an Excel spreadsheet
[2:27:43] and then that's going to go to my supervisor and the supervisor is going to review the information
[2:27:48] on that Excel spreadsheet, and then when it gets submitted to our tech team, prior to being posted,
[2:27:55] we will be able to check to make sure that the information that has been catalogued,
[2:28:00] corresponds with the information in Odyssey from the clerk's office, et cetera.
[2:28:06] It would be wonderful for us to have external validators and partner with institutions like
[2:28:12] the University of Chicago and other entities that do that kind of data. And we have those relationships
[2:28:18] and we are working towards models for various things to do that.
[2:28:23] However, I sound like a broken record, but without a case management system, it is very, very
[2:28:31] difficult for external entities to actually validate and check our data in the way that we are
[2:28:37] accustomed to and other forums, because there is in the state's journey in our office now
[2:28:44] who can actually say like, I would like to know this.
[2:28:47] I'm gonna call it from the information I have.
[2:28:51] They're doing it through exiles spreadsheets.
[2:28:54] There's no searching mechanism.
[2:28:57] It's by hand.
[2:28:58] And so, it's very difficult to put ourselves in a position
[2:29:02] where we can have the kind of external validation
[2:29:04] that I think you're talking about
[2:29:06] with those mechanisms in place.
[2:29:08] Well, I do think that if possible
[2:29:10] that external validation would be helpful
[2:29:12] because if what I'm hearing earlier is you know you said the previous state's attorney did not
[2:29:17] have accurate information I would assume that the previous state's attorney would disagree with that
[2:29:23] and then we're creating it. I don't think anybody can disagree that we did more than 14 jury trials
[2:29:27] in all of 2024. I mean that's flat on its face everybody could see that that's inaccurate.
[2:29:34] I just want to make sure that one we are going to have some public facing dashboard because I think
[2:29:38] that is critical you know you have mentioned you want to know when you're doing good work
[2:29:43] that's why your data driven the public I think would also like the data and that is a
[2:29:48] way to recognize the work that's being done and so I think you know very eager to see the
[2:29:56] I'm excited to meet with you all and ask more questions.
[2:30:00] When we do meet. And I will, I will send those questions to you directly, as I know the chair needs to move forward. Thank you.
[2:30:09] Thank you.
[2:30:10] Commissioner's tapes on me.
[2:30:14] Just really quickly on the follow up. You've quoted that statistic of 29 women being murdered, a couple times, 3039, 39, a couple times.
[2:30:26] And so it would be, for me, and maybe everyone else, it would probably be useful to know that breakdown because I'm curious about that information, not only just the percentage or the number of those women who were transgender, but I'm also curious to know the number of young, number of women who may be younger adults. I'm interested if you're seeing any kind of uptake in domestic violence amongst youth and younger adults.
[2:30:52] That's my question. We'll follow back up with you. Thank you.
[2:30:57] Thank you very much for your presentation and we look forward to seeing you.
[2:31:01] And October, when we will have a good follow up on all these requests. Thank you.
[2:31:05] Thank you very much.
[2:31:06] Thank you.