Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps received the green light from the county board Tuesday night to enter into a pilot program with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to provide a deputy to go along with their caseworkers on home visits.
The state will pick up the total cost of the program estimated at $140,000 a year. Cripps says it will cover the full salary and benefits of the deputy as well as all equipment.
The pilot program began earlier in eight other counties, including Jefferson, after the death of a DCFS caseworker while handling a case. Marion County is now in the next group of counties DCFS wants to add to the program following good support in the initial counties. Cripps says the goal of DCFS is to eventually have a deputy assigned to the agency in every county.
“They are there for the safety of the case workers while they are there for their investigation. But if they see something or a kid needs to be taken into protective custody the cops can do that right there. Basically, it starts the process much quicker.”
Cripps plans to call DCFS to get the process underway to add the deputy. He’ll have to hire another deputy to fill the opening it leaves for road patrol.
Cripps reported two deputies are currently in School Resource Officer training. The department plans to use one of the deputies for the SRO officer that will be shared between South Central and Patoka School Districts beginning with the next school year. The other could be utilized in another shared officer arrangement between Raccoon and Selmaville Grade Schools, but Cripps is non-committal about how soon that program will start as he will need to find two new road deputies to replace the SROs.
Cripps reported there are currently 51 inmates in the Marion County Jail, including 32 federal inmates. He reports the federal inmate number is above the minimum needed to help fund his budget. The sheriff also reported the sheriff’s department handled 778 calls and made 52 traffic stops during February.
