DuPage County Balances Their Budget Despite Covid-19 Impacts

​When Dan Cronin recently presented the Dupage County Budget, he highlighted a number of steps
the county is taking and concessions employeess have been asked to make  in order to balance the budget. He also discussed the impact of the $161 million the county received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act.

The two priorities Cronin cited are public health and public safety.  As reported on Naperville News 17, 
Crime rates have been up in the county and in an effort to help combat that, DuPage is creating special crime units, as well as working with the State’s Attorney Office to prosecute criminals. “We’re not
bringing in new people to head these units,” said Cronin. “We’re taking the talented people that we have in State’s Attorney’s Office and we’re promoting from within, and we’re assigning them to these units. And yeah, they should get a pay raise and they’ll have the resources in these units to fight these more complex and more heinous crimes.”

Organizations like the Dupage County NAACP,  the College of Dupage,  and Unity Partnership were also mentioned for their efforts with police training.  While supporting officer training,  Unity Partnership is working on a number of other inititaves, including educational workshops for the community members on Traffic Stops and the Use of Force, and increasing departmental diversity in both sworn and non sworn positions.   We are also close to completing a Template of suggested reforms which was developed with input from the community and DuPage Chiefs, which we believe  will increase transparency and build trust.   These reforms include the adoption of body cameras, licensing officers, reforming the complaint process and the establishment of Civilian Collaboration Boards.  Despite the ongoing challenges of Covid 19, we continue to work on our mission to have a positive impact on the relationship between police and civlilians.