Raising Street Smart Kids in DuPage

6:30pm-7:00pm Social

7:00pm Speaker: DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick

Followed by Meet and Greet with local and state candidates:

Keith Pekau, 6th Congressional District

Sheriff James Mendrick:

Since being elected in 2018, Sheriff Mendrick has trans-formed the Sheriff’s office into a “state of the art” law

enforcement agency with a focus on technology in crime prevention and enforcement, He helped develop MERIT (Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigative Team) which is a conglomeration of all 36 municipal police agencies from DuPage County and the Sheriff’s office that respond in a coordinated effort to major events like the one that occurred on Dec. 23rd , 2021 at the Oak Brook Mall. Through the quick and efficient work of the Sheriff’s Crime Lab, many cases of crime have been solved and the perpetrators of those crimes were brought to justice using science. Sheriff Mendrick is not only tough on crime. He has a big focus on rehabilitation, and sees the opportunity to change the lives of those in his custody by transforming criminals into productive members of society. He works with JUST of DuPage , a social service organization that pro-vide programs focused on rehabilitation, and undiagnosed mental health issues that can lead to drug use. He has sta-tistical evidence that those who entered his drug rehab programs have an improved outcome and have not gone back to using drugs like heroin from 95% down to 18% re-lapsing. He has programs that teach useful job skills like custodial arts, drywalling and painting, welding and horti-culture, with college credits from COD, that enable the in-carcerated a different option other than a life of crime. He has a Gang Desistence Program that allows the chance for incarcerated gang members to remove their gang tattoos, meaning they are committed to changing their life and not returning to gang life. He has programs to help them after they leave to be successful. Sheriff Mendrick has formed relationships with local business leaders to help collect and distribute meals to the most vulnerable members of our county, seniors citizens, providing 41,000 meals in 2021.