There's New Sheriff In Town: Patrick Jones' Reveals His Plans For Will County Residents As He Takes Over

JOLIET, IL — Will County Sheriff-Elect Patrick Jones met with Joliet Patch's editor at the Will County Courthouse last Friday and promised to be a regular presence in the local news media and in the community. Outgoing Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley, in contrast, has only spoken directly with Joliet Patch for an interview a handful of times over the past decade and has not had a press conference of any kind in several years.

Last week, by an overwhelming margin, the voters of Will County chose Jones to be their next sheriff,picking the Democratic nominee instead of Republican sheriff's deputy Jim Reilly, who was making it his third attempt to win the sheriff's election.

Jones, who lives in Joliet, gained a lot of support in the Nov. 3 election from Will County's rank and file sheriff's deputies and employees.

Jones will be taking over as the new sheriff on Dec. 1, and in doing so, he will oversee one of the largest sheriff's offices in Illinois, with more than 600 employees. Not only is Kelley retiring, but so is his undersheriff, Dan Jungles.

Jungles was endorsed by Kelley in the March Democratic primary, but Jones managed to come out on top by a wide margin.

"The sheriff should be in the community, talking to people so we can figure out problems," Jones told Joliet Patch on Friday.

He also said that addressing mental health issues, particularly for sheriff's employees, is another top priority of his.

Jones said there have been three suicides of sheriff's employees during his 26-year career in Will County, and he does not want to lose any more employees during his tenure as the sheriff.

Another top priority is working to implement programs to reduce the recidivism rate among Will County's criminal population. There are a lot of repeat criminals in Will County, the sheriff-elect agreed.

"I will be tough on crimes, " Jones promised, "but if people want to change their lives, they can go through doing the trades programs."

Jones said he's finalizing his upper administration.

"I'm working on that," he remarked.

There are a total of chief deputies employed in Will County and those are salaried positions.

Jones revealed that former detective Vincenzo "Vinny" DiSalvo will be taking over as his new undersheriff, while Michael Shaughnessy will be taking over as the new deputy chief of special operations, which includes the criminal investigations unit. Currently, DeSalvo is assigned to courthouse services and Shaughnessy has worked as a watch commander.

In recent years, under Kelley's leadership, the Will County Sheriff's Office had struggles with public transparency, mostly notably, with officer-involved shooting incidents. In several cases, body camera footage was not released for an extended period of time and statements issued by the sheriff's office about what happened surrounding the use of deadly force were not truthful.

For instance, CBS Channel 2 in Chicago reported that Will County officials confirmed in April 2022 that they were now allowing a grieving family to view body camera video from a fatal police shooting after six months of denying their requests to see it. In November 2021, a pair of Will County Sheriff Office deputies shot and killed 21-year-old Jabbar Muhammad in Joliet Township, and his 70-year-old grandfather also died. In a news release after the shooting, sheriff's officials said they shot Muhammad to stop him from stabbing his grandfather, Eldred Wells, "but CBS 2 uncovered that wasn't the full story," the Chicago television station reported in 2022.

Body camera footage was finally released to the media in November 2022.

RELATED: Will County Fails To Disclose It Shot 70-Year-Old Man: FOIA Lawsuit

The Will County Sheriff's Office also prevented the release of any video and body camera footage of Sheriff's Lt. John Allen's sniper shooting at a Romeoville bank from May of 2022 until January 2025, a case that resulted in Will County paying out a $2.75 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement.

Jones said he wants to release as much information as he can "within a week's time" including video or body camera footage, "because more police departments are doing that," he remarked, "especially officer-involved shootings."

Under the Kelley administration, Will County has reopened and filed charges in connection with a number of long-ago murder cases. Jones said that will remain a high priority for him as well. "I don't like calling them cold cases because someone is always going to be working them trying to get the new evidence," Jones remarked.

As for any future murders that may happen under his watch in Will County, Jones had this to say: "I think if we have a homicide, I want to come in the next day and get briefed on it. And any major incident. I want to know what we're doing to try to solve this case."

After he takes over, Jones said he will become a regular face inside the Will County Courthouse, out in the community as well as making visits to the jail and visiting with the traffic patrol personnel. Patch asked him what the mood and sentiment at the Will County Sheriff's Office with the employees was leading up to the election.

Kelley, a Lockport native who has been on the force since the late 1980s, served three terms as the Democratic officeholder.

"A lot of people were just saying it was time for a change," Jones said. "The people will have contact with me, and I will be in the community. I am a civil servant."