4 days ago
Kane County Board approves sheriff's officers' contract, electronic home monitoring service and ‘robot dog' purchase
Three public safety-related items were approved by the Kane County Board at its monthly meeting on Tuesday. They include a new contract and raises for sheriff's officers, a new electronic home monitoring service and the purchase of a 'robot dog' for the Kane County Sheriff's Office for use by its bomb squad and other units.
All three items were approved by the board Tuesday as part of the consent agenda.
The new collective bargaining agreement for Kane County sheriff's officers approved Tuesday includes 6% raises for the 2024-25 fiscal year and 4% raises for the following two fiscal years, according to past reporting. The previous collective bargaining agreement — which is between the sheriff, county and the Metropolitan Alliance of Police Chapter 735 — expired in November, and the parties have since been engaged in negotiations.
The raises will not require additional money from the county until the 2026-27 fiscal year, Sheriff Ron Hain previously said, when the office is set to request upwards of $3 million for the salary increases. Hain previously attributed the increase then to the office's expectation that a number of officers will have reached greater seniority by then and will therefore be receiving higher salaries.
The sheriff's office will also be entering into an agreement with Sentinel Offender Services for electronic home monitoring services in the county, used for both detainees awaiting trial who are released and some other offenders.
The county has had an electronic monitoring system for more than five years, according to past reporting, after having discontinued its previous program at the end of 2017 over budget concerns.
Andrew Schwab, a sergeant in the Kane County Sheriff's Office who oversees court operations, said that there were 'shortcomings' in the current system related to the software, ease of use, app and alerts at the May Kane County Board Judicial and Public Safety Committee meeting. He said that the office researched other options and has tested the winning provider, Sentinel.
At the May committee meeting, the sheriff's office noted that the new monitors have a long battery life, are easy to use and are able to send voice alerts and audible alerts.
Per the resolution, the contract with the current provider expired on April 30. Hain told The Beacon-News that the current contract was extended month-by-month until the new agreement was approved by the board.
The new contract will last for two years, with the option for up to three one-year extensions, according to the resolution. Per the resolution and sheriff's office, the system will be paid for via the office's corrections detainee food budget and through the payments made by participants in the monitoring program.
Also, the sheriff's office will be purchasing a Boston Dynamics Spot robot to be used for bomb detection operations, and also by the SWAT team and other teams, following county board approval of the purchase on Tuesday.
The Kane County Sheriff's Office has said the current bomb robot being used by the office is 27 years old, and that updating it would have cost $250,000 and wouldn't have enhanced the current device's capabilities.
The new robot, which is designed to resemble a dog, will have integrations from FlyMotion, the resolution said. It can open doors, use stairs and essentially go wherever a person would go, the sheriff's office said in May when the matter was brought to a County Board committee, and will have a disruptor that can make an explosive inert on-scene.
The new 'robot dog' will be paid for using money from the sheriff's office new vehicle fund, per the resolution, and is set to come in at just over $350,000.
