About the Cook County Sheriff's Office
According
to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, it “is the second largest Sheriff's
Department in the United States, employing more than 6,800 officers, deputies and civilians who perform a number of diverse
tasks within the criminal justice system.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department is the third largest police department
in the State of Illinois, with more than 500 sworn officers and more than 100 civilian personnel. The Department is responsible
for patrolling the 72 square miles of unincorporated neighborhoods, businesses and industrial areas where more than 109,000
people reside. The Sheriff’s Police has a number of units within the Department available to other law enforcement agencies
for use on a mutual aid basis, including the Bomb Unit, Evidence Technicians, Gang Crimes/Narcotic and Vice. In addition,
the Department has police officers assigned to several federal agencies, including the FBI and DEA, where officers from both
agencies work together on cases of regional and national scope.
The Department operates one of six accredited police training academies statewide that most local
police departments utilize and also has a Fugitive Warrants Division responsible for holding and maintaining thousands of
active, outstanding arrest warrants for people wanted for crimes committed throughout Cook County.
Cook County Jail is one of the largest, single site pre-trial
facilities in the United States. It employs more than 3,000 correctional officers, administrators and other
line staff.
The Cook County Jail has an
average daily population of 9,000 inmates. The majority of inmates at the Jail, (more than 90 percent) are held on a pre-trial
basis. They are detained at the Jail while their trials are conducted in the county court system.
Everyday the Sheriff’s Office transports more than 1,000 inmates to and from their court appearance at the Criminal
Courts Building, the County’s suburban district courts and several Chicago Police district courts.
When an inmate is convicted and given a sentence
in excess of one year, he is transported to the Illinois Department of Corrections to serve the time in a state prison.”
Source:
Cookcountysheriff.org