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Top cop in tiny town kills canine program, blames state

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Illinois

The Sullivan Police Department says it will not move forward with its K-9 program.

We’re told the main reason is “because of the current laws and attacks in law enforcement.”

The station basically just lifted that “news” from the department’s own Facebook page. Sullivan is a town of about 4,300 people, by the way.

* The Journal Gazette went a little deeper…

Chief Andrew Pistorius said the Sullivan Police Department has opted to not move forward with creating a canine program due to new state use-of-force guidelines for law enforcement agencies.

Pistorius said his understanding of the SAFE-T Act that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law in February is that this criminal justice reform law will increase use-of-force guidelines on police canines being used to apprehend subjects. He said law enforcement agencies will be exposed to more legal liability for taking this action. […]

The Sullivan Police Department had planed to obtain a “dual purpose” canine that could handle apprehensions and drug detection, Pistorius said. Moving forward with a “single purpose” canine focused solely on drug detection would not be worth the training and operations expenses, he said. […]

Pistorius said Sullivan will continue requesting assistance from canine units with the Arthur Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Illinois State Police, and other agencies for its police canine needs.

So, Sullivan doesn’t have a drug problem, but it does have a violence problem? Weird. I didn’t realize Sullivan was in such dire straits. Luckily for them there are several other agencies they can rely on during these hard times.

The department’s first police dog died in February of an unexplained “pre-existing condition” after only a week on the job. Maybe they should switch to cats because they have nine lives.

* More to the point, the original SAFE-T Act bill passed in January, but a trailer bill was approved this spring which had the support of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and included significant changes to the use of force language.

* Related…

* Hippies are gonna make us kill all our dogs!!!

* When Police Violence is a Dog Bite

* Police Use Painful Dog Bites To Make People Obey

* Police Wanted “A Dog That Would Bite A Black Person”

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:13 pm

Comments

There’s also this. Apparently the hippies have taken over the Pulitzer committee…
https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20210614/feder-chicagos-invisible-institute-shares-pulitzer-prize-for-national-reporting

Comment by Soccermom Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:24 pm
Another argument for local government consolidation.

Comment by SouthSide Markie Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:30 pm
===There’s also this===

Um, many of those stories are linked above. I also posted Feder’s column yesterday. lol

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:37 pm
First dog dies the first week on the job of a pre-existing condition that wasn’t diagnosed.

Chief asks for another dog.

This reads like his bosses told him no, you can’t have another dog.

But I want a new dog.

I don’t care, you’re not getting another dog.

What am I supposed to tell people?

Blame Springfield for all I care, but you’re not getting another dog.

Comment by Asteroid of Caution Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:40 pm
== Chief Andrew Pistorius ==

Any relation to Oscar?

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:50 pm
Then there’s this:
Shelby County Sheriff resigns, citing police reform:
https://www.wandtv.com/news/shelby-co-sheriff-announces-resignation-cites-police-reform/article_abeab37a-d073-11eb-a049-f31ccf2a6fe4.html

https://www.wandtv.com/news/shelby-co-sheriff-announces-resignation-cites-police-reform/article_abeab37a-d073-11eb-a049-f31ccf2a6fe4.html

Comment by Platitudinous Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:50 pm
As a hick from a small town, let me just say that if there were offenders violent enough to require the use of dogs, I wouldn’t want to live here. But this is just par for the course. More and more small towns are using big city police tactics for no good reason.

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:53 pm
I guess the Sullivan Police Department will have to find another way to terrorize the three dozen people of color who reside in their town.

Comment by Lake County Mom Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:56 pm
“The station basically just lifted that “news” from the department’s own Facebook page.”

Lazy local TV news stories are some of the most dangerous forms of institutionalized, pro-police propaganda.

Comment by NIU Grad Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 3:57 pm
Sounds like he wants to take a bite out of crime.

Comment by Big Rocker Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 4:06 pm
Platitudinous,

there’s also this nugget from the Edgar Co. Watchdogs:

Koonce cites police reform as his reaffirmation to retire, however, Koonce faced a criminal investigation by the Illinois State Police regarding illegal gun sales and alleged payroll fraud. That investigation was completed and turned over to the Attorney General for a charging decision in December of 2020.

https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2021/06/shelby-county-sheriff-koonce-resigns-effective-june-25-2021/

Comment by Asteroid of Caution Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 4:08 pm
Damn, I think I went to college with someone related to the retiring Edgar Co. sheriff.

Comment by Former Downstater Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 4:26 pm
= Maybe they should switch to cats because they have nine lives. =

They’d ignore all drugs other than catnip, and then they’d roll around in the evidence.

Comment by JoanP Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 4:35 pm
As a former hippie, I’m glad the Sullivan PD won’t be getting a dog. Doesn’t appear to be a good environment for our 4-legged friends.

Comment by Sir Reel Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 4:56 pm
My birth region representing. Seriously, I would think a blood hound would actually do more good in Sullivan. It could search for bodies and missing people. Lake Shelbyville is not too far away and the Kaskaskia River State site too.

But maybe Sullivan has fallen on hard times. Apparently they have 3 TIF districts.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 5:10 pm
A good police canine is usually over 10k and this chief never had it vet checked? How do you justify that cost to your budget? Not to mention the amount of training prior to getting out on the street-some time those K-9 Officers spend at least a month training….then there is the K-9 squad car which is pretty pricey.

Comment by Cable Line Beer Gardener Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 5:14 pm
It’s setting up obvious for 2022. Dems running on equity issues. Repubs running on soft on crime issues. My early take. Dems better figure out this violence thing in 12 months. Or nationally it’s gonna be a route.

Comment by Blue Dog Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 5:38 pm
more BS from the police, Sullivan has neither a drug problem or a violence problem, The problem the cops have is universal, they don;t want to be held accountable

Comment by truthteller Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 6:44 pm
My local police department paid for a part-time officer to attend “Lead Homicide investigator training”. Town population 850, last homicide in this town occurred in the late 1800’s.

Comment by Stoney Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 6:56 pm
“I guess the Sullivan Police Department will have to find another way to terrorize the three dozen people of color who reside in their town.”

According to Wikipedia, Sullivan is 98.85% white and 0.3% African American.

That means it has 12 Black people living there. A total of 56 non-white people.

I always call these whites-only towns and I think that’s pretty accurate.

Comment by Narc Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 8:19 pm
“Sullivan is a town of about 4300 people by the way…” Sums up the entire attitude of this blog and its commentary. Small towns
..eat a big one.

Comment by Ugh Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:34 pm
- Sums up the entire attitude of this blog -

I’m from a town of 6,000, snowflake.

Comment by Excitable Boy Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:43 pm
===I’m from a town of 6,000===

I grew up in the country five miles from a town of 1,000

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 11:04 pm
“ Small towns ..eat a big one.”

On things like this, we’ll, yeah. For a tiny town like this, how many police apprehensions do they perform yearly to justify a specialty K-9 unit like this?

I’m of the opinion they probably don’t need an MRAP or bomb squad, either.

Comment by Narc Wednesday, Jun 23, 21 @ 8:23 am
“Repubs running on soft on crime issues.”
Yes. Calling the Jan 6 Capitol Rioters tourists is incredibly soft on crime.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Wednesday, Jun 23, 21 @ 8:27 am