Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan on recent events

Transcript

Talk-Line: Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan on recent events · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are quarter past the hour. This is Wednesday, It's
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: July the sixteenth, year is twenty twenty five, and it's
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: time for another informational edition of Tukline here at wix
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and Radio. Good morning, I'm Steve Markowit his time for
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: our by montly look at news and information from your
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Lee County Sheriff's Department and in our Lee County Sheriff's
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Department spotlight today who better than our Lee County Sheriff.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: He is live at the microphones with us once again
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to give us the lowdown. Our Lee County Sheriff, Clay
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Whalen is with us today on Wixent Sheriff.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good marning, Steve. How are you?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I am fine, sir, welcome back. Thanks for joining us again.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Busy time during the summer of twenty twenty five, Sheriff.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I guess we can kind of start there, tailing back
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to events that started earlier this summertime into the fourth
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of July holiday break you mentioned off air, and we'll
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: just start there. That our Dixon Petunia Festival was pretty quiet.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Pretty now, I mean, no major influence of concern. We
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: did have a little weather that rolled in on that
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Saturday night that we had to shut down the concert
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: venue as well as the carnival venue. Once that passed,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: they are able to open that back up I believe
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: about nine thirty ten o'clock. So I had good cooperation
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: obviously with the Dixon Police Department. We had some deputies
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: that supplemented their patrol and supplemented their force and foot
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: patrols and ATV patrols downtown. So you know, high visibility
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: and no issues. That's worked out. Well, yeah, that's great.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: That's always good to know. You know, in a major
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: festival like that where you're inviting in a lot of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: folks you know, across our norther not just northern Illinois,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: but across you know, the area and across you know,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: from outside our area in for a big festival, you
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: need to gear up for that. And here's the here's
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the take on that that we wanted to I guess
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: combine law enforcement agency share if you wanted to talk
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: about this this morning. You know, the combining of law
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: enforcement agencies too. Again you know bolster, you know the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: personnel and make things safer.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Well, we're we're out to do the same job. You know,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: crime knows no geographic limitation. Yeah, so, I mean that's
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: that's the spirit of cooperation. That's what we need to
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: do in the Sock Valley area. And we've got some
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: very good relationships with the other area law enforcement agencies.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: For instance, we just went and helped Whiteside County out
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: beginning of July with some multiple search warrants in regards
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: to a shooting situation that they had over there. So
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: we assisted them and supplemented their forces in executing those
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: warrants and everybody went home safe. There was no incidents
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: and all three subjects were taken into custody.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Always, always, I guess an aid when you can again
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: bring about the extra personnel sheriff, especially in these emergency
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: situations like you just talked about, to again get the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: job done. And working with our new Dixon Chief of Police,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Ryan Vy.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: You Yeah, I obviously came from the Dixon Police Department.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: I worked with with with Ryan Bivins. You know, he's
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: a great man, comes from great stock, So you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: I totally envisioned the spirit of cooperation to continue and
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: even floor USh further.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. You know that we have our new
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Dixon Chief of Police and again that again coming together
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of agencies, especially when it comes like you mentioned two
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: important emergency matters like you had in Waitest County and
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: to big festivals like we had with the Dixon Petunia Festival.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And we're not done there yet.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: No, we've got a few more coming down the pipe.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so talk about what you're playing.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Well, we've got the Lee County four h Fair coming
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: here in two weeks. We've also got car Show and
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Ashton coming up, and Boy Depot Days will be coming
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: up in August, so we will be deploying our mobile
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: command post there.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: We're going to have you know, obviously extra deputies.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Working over time details just to you know, supplement the
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the forces down there.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, back to the fourth of July, did we did
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: we have you know, the increased volume of you know
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: activity through the sheriffs Department with the Fourth of July holiday.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I know that that's usually type of you know, the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: holiday that we kind of you know, add more services
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and add more personality.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: We did have some extra deputies out on the roadway.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: They were doing some traffic enforcement details just to try
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: and keep everybody you know, safe, driving safe and driving sober.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and a lot of that is helped
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: out by I know that grants, you know, federal funding,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: things like that come into play there, you know when
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: it comes to you know, putting together big holiday travel periods.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And so the Lee County Shares Department participated in that,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of bolstering their load over the Fourth
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of July holiday and especially during the day of Petunia Festival.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: But you mentioned the mobile unit, and I continue to
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: bring this up because it is a great piece of
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you know, of equipment that the Share Department utilizes, you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: in their visits to these you know, larger festivals and
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: in these areas you know of larger volume, you need
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: that you know, headquarters, and this is a really cool
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: unit that you that.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: You Yeah, we have surveillance cameras, we have mobile screens
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: inside that we can monitor. We have other surveillance cameras
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: that we can set up in the area. So it's
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: kind of a force multiplier. We can kind of keep
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: an eye on a large expansive area with utilizing just
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: you know, one or two people inside there just to
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: monitor everything.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again that will be used again, as Sheriff
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: mentioned at the County fairs coming up again, our Lee
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: County Fair will be in just a couple of days,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and as Sheriff mentioned, a couple of again major activities
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: with the Ashton Car Show on the Amway Depot days.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: They'll have their mobile headquarters as well from the Lee
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: County sheriff Department. Our Lee County Sheriff, Clay Whaling is
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: with us today here at w WYXEN to give us
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the outlook of what is going on through the Lee
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Department. We talked about the activity going on
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: at the festivals coming up and all of the upcoming activities.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Well back to school, Sheriff, here we go. You know
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: it's before the next time we talk, well, school will
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: be in session. Yeah, we need to put the word off.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: It's hard to believe that summer's almost over, but yeah,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: there'll be. I've got two boys that are playing in football,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: high school football right now, and they've already started, so right, you.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Know, So you know, and I know that the you know,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Lee County Sheriff's Office, you know, especially in the rural areas,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: you know, watching out for school buses.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Things like that.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Yes, you know, obviously you see a big yellow bus
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: coming down the road, please slow down absolutely. You know,
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: you see the flashing lights, obviously stop for the stop arms.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: That's a major violation that if you don't adhere to that,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: you lose your license.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: So in the rural areas, on the rural roads. And
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: these are coming dear to course, by the Lee County
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department mainly, you know, and it's such a large
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: county that we have. You know, it's not unusual, you
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: know for a motorist to maybe come up on a
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: school bus, you know, and you know, make the move
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and you're right, you just mentioned it. You could be fined,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: you know, big time.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: You can be fine big time and lose your your
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: driving Yeah, So I mean is it worth it? So
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: allow us a little extra time, please, you know, be respectable,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: you know, don't don't drive recklessly.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And it's the same to I guess they can be
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: sent to you know, about our construction season, it continues on.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: We've had, you know, numerous construction projects now across our
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Lee County area.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: We got a lot of construction projects going around Dixon
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: right now. Yeah, with a lot of barricades, a lot
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: of little sometimes a little confusion on how to turn
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: where to go, we're not to turn. So yeah, just
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: like I said, slow down, allow extra time.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Are we are we ready into problems with that? Mean?
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: We really? I mean you know when they change directions,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: you know, especially and I'm just thinking about the bridge
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: project out here on Galda Avenue, they keep changing lanes
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: on this I mean, do we run into problems? Yeah?
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Oh we do. Yeah.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Actually I was heating home yesterday and I had a
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: vehicle coming directly at me. They changed the the barricades
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: on on Gleen Avenue, and I like, what is this
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: vehicle doing?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Well, they quickly turned by.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: They quickly turned it must have realized it was in
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: the wrong lane, and.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Oh turned the guy all the way.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, drive defensively, especially in this
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: construction season.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Exactly because like you mentioned, day by day this could happen.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: They could change the road traffic procedure daily.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: And you need to be aware, you need to be
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: driver aware. And then sometimes when you get used to,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: you know, you settle into a situation where you've you've
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: had this laying closure for you know, some time, and
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: they suddenly changed it. I'm sure, like you just mentioned
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in your experience yesterday, yeah.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's especially a good reason why, you know,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: no distracted driving, no use of cell phones, especially in
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: these high construction seasons.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely good, good, good advice to pass along by
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: our Lee County sheriff. Sheriff for we did want to
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: talk about the outdoors too, and uh and and about
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: a situation concerning outdoor burning you wanted to.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Bring up as a topic.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Lee County is exploring the possibility of an outdoor
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: burning ordnance. Basically, we've had some situations there. There were
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: individuals that burnt during red flag warning by the National
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Weather Service where they're saying conditions are terrible for you
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: to burn because everything can just pop up and flourish
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: and you can't really control controlled burn so to speak.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: We had three firefighters that injured up in Carroll County
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: and trying to battle one of these grass fires.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: We also had.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: One day in Lee County where every fire, every fire
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: department in Lee County was mobilized for grass fires.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So that's quite a few personnel, you know, when you
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: talk about every fire department in Lee County.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Correct. We actually had the Green River.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Conservation area down south they I believe they started a
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: what was going to be a controlled burn and that
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: got out of control, and the National Weather Service actually
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: spotted the heat signature on their radar and then contacted
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: our EMA director Kevin Lalley to let him make him
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: aware something is going on there.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, and that kind of major you know,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: when you have that type of agency, you know, spot
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that activity here locally and make the call. And you're right, Jeff,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: We're right for for situations like this. We have been
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: for this, this weather pattern that we are, you know,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: going back and forth with rains, first of all, heavy
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: rains in our region, then to dry and heat like
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: we're going to experience today. It's just been crazy. But
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: you know, this outdoor burning problem, sheriff, you know really
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: needs to be Uh.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: There's just certain days when the conditions are not favorable
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: that you know, we we we want to you know,
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: tell people and you know, encourage them, you know, follow
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: the National Weather Service advice if you fail to do
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: so and elicits in a response from a you know,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: first responders, they're they're they're out there, you know, risking
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: their lives. So we want them to try and you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: be smart about it. And if you fail to adhere
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: to that, then you might get fined.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: The you know, I guess the burden falls on the
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: property owners that are that are wanting to do maybe
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: control birds, like you mentioned the Green River area and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: all that, you know, wanting to do control birds. Obviously,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you know, this kind of falls on their shoulders. There's
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: really unless you you go to a fire department and say, hey,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: we're planning on doing this.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: Individuals are supposed to call in controlled burns so that
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: the fire departments are aware of it, so that doesn't
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: elicit a false emergency response. But yeah, I mean we
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: people just need to you know, have the adequate resources
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: there to control that burn, you know, not leave it unattended.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: So and that's that's all we're looking at. Where I
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: know a lot of farmers you know, want to burn
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: fence rows. We're not looking to prohibit that whatsoever. No,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: we just want you know, people to not burn at
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: the times where it's most.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Dangerous exactly, and to be prepared, as you mentioned, Sheriff,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: with all that the equipment that you're supposed to have,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: you can't just go in and light a match and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and and take it for granted. You can't
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: do that you have to be prepared for.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: These situations exactly exactly, so if things do get a
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: little out of hand, you got some water, you got
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: some some tools. Whether a lot of times they're using
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: portable air blowers to kind of suppress them and knock
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: them out.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Yea.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: And again those could you know, maybe fuel the fire
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: in certain circumstances.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Could in certain circumstances.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: But you know a lot of times, you know, you'll
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: see these fire department responses and they'll have those those
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: air blowers out, you know, suppressing and taking them out
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: the flames.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And again it's a good idea to contact your local
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: fire agencies when you're planning on doing a controlled burn,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: even if it's on your own residence, to make them
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: aware that you're going to be doing this, and to
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: possibly look at days where it's better to do it
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: than not as good to do it. To share it
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: just pointed out, but the weather situation across our Lee
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: County area, shre if anything to add before we let
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: you go anything else.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Going on, It looks like we might be getting some
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: severe weather this afternoon. So I would just encourage everybody
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: to have your weather alerts on over the next it
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: sounds like several days. I will put in a plug
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: for our Lee County Sheriff's Department app. There's you know,
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: if you download that to your cell phone, there's automatic
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: notifications from the National Weather Service, so that will keep
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: you informed of what's going on. You know, if you
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: have a Noah Weather radio, make sure that you know
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: batteries are in it and plugged in and tuned in
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: so in case something does come through this area, you know,
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: whether you're tornadoes. We probably won't see the flooding like
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: they saw in Texas, but you know, at least we
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: get some advanced warning.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Absolutely tis the season and we need to be weather
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: whether alert and weather prepared. Sheriff. We thank you so
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: very much for all the information. Always a pleasure having
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: you on board. Appreciate your visit today. Thank you Steve,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: our Lee County share Clay Whaland with us today on
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: WIX and time to go to press with Tim Lee
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: in the half hour