ROCK ISLAND COUNTY, Ill. — We are continuing our election series--bringing you conversations with the candidates of some of the area's biggest races, including the race for Rock Island County Sheriff.
Democrat Darren Hart is facing off against Republican Patrick Moody.
These are not debates but, rather, a chance for each candidate to lay out what his policies are and why they want your vote.
Below, we have each candidate's complete, unedited interview. You can also view the full version of both interviews on our YouTube page.
Please note, the video at the very top of this page is a shorter version of each candidate's answers and has been edited down for time.
We begin with Darren Hart, whose last name comes first alphabetically.
Darren Hart
SHELBY KLUVER: Can you explain your background in law enforcement and some of the special tasks that you've been on our task force for?
DARREN HART: Sure. So I've been in law enforcement for 29 years. I actually started back in the early 90s with the city of Rock Island as a police officer. In 1997, I actually went over to the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office, and I've been there for the past 25 years. During that period of time, I've worked from a deputy sheriff working the street to frontline supervision. I was promoted to a sergeant where I actually was in charge of some of the patrol operations. Got an investigative background as well. I was part of our Office of Professional Standards for a period of time, courthouse security. Throughout my career, then I've had some other rank promotions to lieutenant where I continued to be in our investigative unit to the Office of Professional Standards. And then in 2014, I was promoted the rank of captain and was appointed to oversee our operations, which is our sworn operations, which is all of patrol, investigations. I held that for a period of time. And then, for about the last seven years, I was our administrative captain, which was everything from being in charge of our budget to courthouse security, 911 operations, maintenance operations. So I've had a wealth of experience over the years. And I'm currently now the chief deputy, which is the under sheriff, of the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office of a department that's about 185 employees.
KLUVER: So why make that leap to sheriff?
HART: Well, I think it's, it's something that I've, I've had in my mind for quite some time that I would love at some point, if I could to lead the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office. We have an incredible staff of employees. And it would be, kind of my fulfill a long term goal of mine have actually been able to make some changes within the department, but obviously, continue to support those men and women down there and really support the communities that we serve. And after 29 years of being in law enforcement, it's definitely something that I will look forward to, and I hope to be elected here in November.
KLUVER: This department has been captained by Sheriff Bustos for almost a decade now. You have his full endorsement. If you win on November 8, would things change in this department, or would we see a continuation of the Bustos sheriff?
HART: No, I mean, obviously, there would be changes, I think you're gonna have that with whoever the next sheriff is. Change is natural; change is something that happens in law enforcement. There will definitely be some changes at the Rockland County Sheriff's Office, from staffing to just our daily mission, what we do the challenges that we face out in the community. I think the sheriff Gerry Bustos today would say that he's left the department in great hands, and that we will move forward. We want to make sure that we continue to push forward, build on the foundation that we've had for since the early 1800s. And I feel that I'm the individual to kind of push that forward, and I'm definitely going to do everything I can.
KLUVER: Your opponent has talked about bringing a conservative voice to the sheriff's office. What kind of voice would you like to see brought to this office?
HART: Well, I mean, we need to continue to meet our daily mission in that truly is to be accountable to the citizens here in Rock Island County. I've pledged to do that since day one, that we continue to support our employees. I've said when I made my announcement back in May of last year, that my biggest strength and my passion in law enforcement is that we continue to provide those resources to our staff, because those are the individuals that truly are the backbone of law enforcement: corrections, telecommunications, or law enforcement, clerical, security. I mean, those are the individuals every day that meet the daily challenges that we have here in our community. We have a good foundation in place. Change is natural. Change will happen. And I believe I have the vision to move this department forward in the direction it needs to to continue to meet the demands here in the Quad Cities.
KLUVER: Well, let's move on to staffing. It's one of the biggest issues facing not just this department but all across the nation. What ideas do you have to help improve staffing and help improve morale at the Rock Island County Sheriff's Department?
HART: Well, staffing is an issue. Staffing is an issue nationally. It's not just with Rock Island County Sheriff's Office. I think if you were to ask any law enforcement agency, especially here in the Quad Cities, both Iowa and Illinois, they would tell you that hiring is probably our number one pressing need right now. And that is an issue that we're having is that we're trying to find qualified applicants to apply for these public safety jobs across all mediums, and to be able to get them in and get them in the door. And we definitely need to, there are avenues that we can do to explore to try to bring more applicants in, we are already looking at redesign of our our media platform, to be able to make it easier for an individual to actually apply for the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office. We definitely need to have that community outreach, where we're out at job fairs, we're going to schools, and those are some of the approaches that I'm going to take to get out into our community, have a visible presence and let people know that these are great jobs. The profession and public safety, if you're in fire, EMS, law enforcement, corrections, telecommunications, whatever it is, they're great jobs. They're public servant jobs. I've done it for almost three decades. It's something that I love. And it's a job that we need to do. And we're going to do everything we can to fill the openings we have within the sheriff's office very quickly and get our staff back up to where it needs to be at. And then I think, as we talk about morale, we have some challenges in the sense that we have a lot of mandates right now within corrections. Corrections is the area that we're having a lot of issues, and when I say issues, it's just staffing issues is that we're down. And that is a national trend as well. And but we are making strides there, and we will continue to do that and continue to press forward with hiring individuals as quickly as we can, that are qualified and that come in it can meet the mission of the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office and that's to treat those individuals with care and compassion. That's what our mission is, is to be accountable, transparent, teach people, not teach people, but to be accountable and show compassion to the individuals that we are tasked with supervision. And then we're going to continue to do that.
KLUVER: Do you have any specific ideas for how to not only draw people in but keep people at the department?
HART: Well, we don't the retention, and it's the one of the number one priorities I have is along with hiring is the retention of staff. And we find that a lot of our staff, or not a lot, but when our staff do leave, they are finding jobs that you know, that they want to go into. It's not so much that they're just leaving the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office by any means; they're becoming law enforcement officers, they're moving out of state, they're moving to different technical jobs, things like that. What can we do? We can definitely look at scheduling. There's a lot of things that we can do to make what we have already in place more enticing. We can definitely look at wages are always an issue. But we have to be fiscally sound with what we do. It is a very large operation; it's continuous operation; it never shuts down. It's almost $15 million a year to run the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office. And we have to be able to make sure that when we expend resources that we are accountable to the taxpayers of Rock Island County. And I pledge to do that. I've said from day one, that I'll have a conservative fiscal management approach. We will always be transparent in what we do at the sheriff's office under my leadership. And we will continue to have those open dialogues with our employees through labor, through our collective bargaining agreements, to look at avenues for us to make the job where they want to be at. And I think there's a lot of that already. But there's always room for improvement; we always can continue to improve. And that's just what we do in law enforcement and in public safety, we continue to improve, and we continue to look at ways for us to improve really the services we deliver and, and that goes across the board from supporting our employees all the way to really the communities that we serve, and we'll continue to do that.
KLUVER: Let's talk about the department's relationship with the county but specifically with the State's Attorney's Office. What kind of roadblocks are there that you would want to work through as Sheriff?
HART: Well, we have a great dialogue with the Rock Island County State's Attorney's Office. We are in constant feedback with them. We we have, you know, investigators that work with our State's Attorneys every day. The elected officials meet quite often have dialogue about ways to improve again in the services of not only from prosecution to really just the entire environment of coming to the the court complex, making sure that we meet the needs that our citizens are coming in to do. You can see people at their best day and at their worst day, we need to make sure that we're doing everything we possibly can down there to meet those needs. But I don't know that I see any roadblocks with the Rock Island County State's Attorney's Office. We have a great dialogue with the state's attorney herself, and with our entire staff. But we do need them to continue to assist us in getting these cases move through as quickly as possible, because we have a backlog of cases. It's just it's known. They're very open and honest about it and transparent, but we have individuals who have been incarcerated, that we need to get them through the court process so that there is a conclusion. And that's really what really, the criminal justice system is designed to do.
KLUVER: How would you as a sheriff be prepared for the changes and implementations coming with the Safe-T Act?
HART: Sure, again, we've had a lot of dialogue. The Safe-T Act is a very large piece of legislation that has a lot of fingers involved in it, I guess, if you would say, and criminal justice reform is obviously the basis for that piece of legislation. We have had discussions not only with the Illinois Sheriffs Association, with the chiefs of police association, with the State's Attorney's Office, with local administrators here to find out what those true impacts will be to law enforcement here. There is concerns with some of the legislation in the sense of the elimination of cash bail that's supposed to start here in January. We are still working through that, what that will look like. But there are other pieces of that legislation that I do support. The sheriff's office has had body worn cameras since 2019. It's part of the new legislation, and it's a mandate statewide. We've met that mandate many years ago. The decertification and and officer certification process for law enforcement, I think community would say we want people who are doing what's right in law enforcement to be law enforcement officers. And that process will allow that to happen. Additional training, mental health training, and until really this legislation, you did not have to be a certified law enforcement officer to even hold the position of Sheriff. And that's what's part of this legislation as well. But there are parts of the legislation that we're going to have to work through. It's my understanding, there's still a lot of dialogue that is still going on with the legislators, with the associations that I had mentioned. And we are hoping that there's some clarity in that language, because we need to be able to go on out and meet our mission, which is protect our communities. And this agency will continue to do that. We will adapt to whatever the legislation looks like come January, and we will be out forefront protecting our communities. That's what we've done. And that's what we will continue to do.
KLUVER: Part of the role of Sheriff and what makes it so unique is you have to balance the administrative side of things, along with the needs of your deputies that are out in the field. Do you think you're the right person to meet that balance?
HART: I do. And I've been within that organization and our current organization for the past 25 years. I know firsthand the the challenges that we're facing in law enforcement at the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office. It is a good organization. We have, like I said earlier, we have an incredible staff. There are challenges just in this profession. But yes, I met with our labor union here just a few days ago; I've met with all the labor unions, both the non-sworn and the sworn. I've pledged my support to those individuals. We will continue to work together to make whatever changes that are necessary. We will look at the agency from top down and decide what is working for us and what is not working for us. And we will make those changes very rapidly, if we need to. But the foundation we have in place is good. We just need to get hiring; we need to get more individuals in the door for the correction side. Law enforcement side, we're doing very well in the sense we're almost fully staffed and probably one of the very few agencies here in Rock Island County, or even maybe Scott County, that is at that level right now. But the correction side and in our maintenance division are areas that we definitely need to continue to look at, continue to work at, and get those positions filled. But absolutely, I believe that I'm the right individual to make sure that the mission of our agency continues and that is serve and protect. I've done it for almost 30 years and I pledge to do that for the community here in Rock Island County. It's a community that I love, and it's community that I've lived in for over 45 years.
KLUVER: What would or what does the role of Sheriff mean to you?
HART: When I ran or when I announced my candidacy back in May of last year, and I've said this many times, I came out to say, you know, the role is an extremely important role. But it's really the collective role of all the individuals that we represent, that go on out and actually handle the daily work from the correctional officers that are working within the correction facility, to our clerical staff that are meeting staff at the window or meeting citizens at the window to the deputies that are out handling the calls for service. I want to be the individual, that at the end of the day, that those individuals can look at and be proud of, in the sense that I have integrity. I'm an extremely professional individual. I've been doing this career for almost 30 years, that I am there that I am there to support them. But that we are out making a difference in our community. And we will continue to do that. And this is a lifelong ambition in the sense that here in about two weeks, we'll know who the next year for Rock Island County will be. And I'm going to do everything I can between now and then to get out meet voters and continue to press along my vision for the agency. And I believe I'm the right individual to continue to push this agency forward and build on the foundation that we have.
KLUVER: You are in an extremely unique position as opposed to a lot of other politicians where if things don't go your way on November 8, and you lose, your opponent then essentially becomes your boss. In that situation. Would you support your opponent in this process?
HART: Absolutely. We have a democracy. Like I said, and I just mentioned it to you. Almost every day we're out knocking on doors, talking to voters, regardless if you're Republican or a Democrat. Law enforcement, I tell people this all the time, when you call 911. You don't care if you're Republican or Democrat, I had on the other end of the phone, you want compassionate care, you want somebody to come and handle your call for service. We will continue to do that. Absolutely. I will support whoever's the next sheriff for Rock Island County, as I hope my opponent would do the same. Because it really is not about the individual themselves, who is the sheriff, it's about the staff that we have, and really us going out and meeting the community's needs, but absolutely, I would, and it's a great process. It's the process that is in our Constitution and you get to go on out and vote. And yes, absolutely, I would do that.
Patrick Moody
SHELBY KLUVER: I'm just gonna have you explain to people who you are, what your background in law enforcement is.
PATRICK MOODY: Well, my name is Patrick Moody. Republican candidate for sheriff of Rock Island County. As far as my background, I graduated from Rockridge High School. Right after high school, I went into the military in the reserves/National Guard. I completed my education at Black Hawk college. I ended up getting three associate degrees and they are all in business. From there, while I was going to school, I got a security job on the riverboat and it was paying the bills and stuff. And then from there, I got a job at the Henry County Sheriff's Department as a deputy sheriff. And that was in August of '92. So that's where I started my law enforcement career. Out there, you get hired as a deputy, but your primary assignment is working in the jail. So primarily, I was working corrections in the radio room as a dispatcher, but I would also get to do the road stuff as well. During my time when I was full time with Henry County, I also took a part time position with Colona, so I was doing both. Colona, I was able to do more patrol stuff, which is what I really loved. And then from there, I eventually took a full time position with Colona in '95. And from '95 to 2001, I worked for Colona PD. During my time there, I was promoted to sergeant after the cities merged, and my last three years there, not only was I working patrol, but I was handling all the felony investigations out there as well. And from there, I got hired on Moline in January 2001. And I spent my last 20 years with Moline PD and retired in July of 2020. During my time with Moline, obviously I worked patrol all different shifts. I was an instructor and a field training officer for at least half my career there. So you know, I was busy with all that. But there's a lot of other things I was obviously busy with too. My first discretionary assignment with Moline was a community-oriented policing unit that which was located in the Floreciente neighborhood. We had a substation down there. We were sitting down there, because of all the gang problems that Moline was having down there. It went on for many, many years, and so there was always two people down there. And my partner and I was heavily involved with the community down there. And especially with the kids, where our efforts were to help break the cycle to where the kids that were growing up weren't going to be a repeat and do what their older brothers or uncles or dads were doing. So we had a lot of involvement with the kids down there, not to mention, you know, being a gang expert and working with the gangs and stuff too. From there. I did that for four years, and then I was promoted to juvenile detective. And I did that for another four years. And during my assignment in juvenile investigations, I was assigned as a school resource officer for the Coolidge alternative high school. So I was really, really busy with that. So not only was I so involved with the school district and especially with that school, but I still had to do the investigation stuff as well. During that time, I became an Alice instructor, which was a new lockdown procedure that they were going to with the schools and stuff based off all the school shootings and stuff. So I was teaching that throughout the Moline school district as well. For there when I finally got out of that assignment, I made the first shift cut which is, you know, making first shift patrolling, getting off at 2:30 every day, that was like a big thing. I went back to patrol and my last six years, I was a field training officer and I kind of was the lead FTO, so to speak, with training new officers and I was extremely busy with that. I probably was in the passenger seat at least six months out of the year training new people up to the point I retired.
KLUVER: Knowing all of that background, let's talk about the future that you want. If you win this election, what are some of your top priorities when it comes to Sheriff of Rock Island County?
MOODY: Well, my experience is, it's unique. I bring something new to the table here, which is, I've been working in front lines my entire career. And I think that's been kind of the missing piece when you look at administrators with departments is that I was on the front lines, I was there doing the work the entire time. And not only was I doing that, I was very proactive, too. So I'm bringing an enormous amount of law enforcement experience and real law enforcement, so to speak, to the job. One of the biggest things when I was approached with this is that I knew that there was plenty of things that needed to be corrected or made better with sheriff's department. I have a ton of friends that work for that sheriff's department, not only inside the jail, but on the road as well. And the biggest things, the biggest complaint is right now, especially with everything that's happened last couple of years is morale. And I want to do things to make the department better, that's going to add quality of life to the deputies and the correctional officers. One of those big task is is that I want to deputize all the correctional officers inside the jail to where you're going to add value to their position. It's not unheard of; there's many sheriff's departments throughout the state to do it. I came from the Henry County Sheriff's Department, and they do it that way as well. And so by doing that, it allows them to have a little bit more authority when it comes to being inside the jail, to where they have arresting power inside the jail, where they can deal with the warrant stuff as well. One of the things that comes with that is I want to be able to create a transport team that's based off officers from the jail that handle that. Right now, the road deputies are so tied up with transports. And it takes so much of their time, it leaves little time for them to be out there patrolling like they should be and covering the county area. And so I think we can alleviate that and take a lot of that away, and put it on a team inside the jail, and it will save money as well. So I want to do that. And then there's there's plenty of other things that can that can be done as well, like, right now, the sheriff's department as far as the road, they have absolutely the worst work schedule that I'm aware of in the Quad City area. They work off of a six/two rotation, and they're constantly had to work six days in a row. And there's other schedules out there that are far better. I came from Colona, and Moline, where we work to five/two five/three schedule. And by doing that, it adds an extra 18 days off a year that an officer gets by switching to that from what there is right there right now. And that even can be applied to the by people in the jail as well. From what I'm seeing the numbers that's been given to me, it can be done. And I just think that would be incredible if that can be added to the situation there. And there's little things to that you can make the job more attractive for inside there. I know the guys have been complaining for a long time about a uniform change. And for whatever reason it gets to the top it sits on the table, and it doesn't get done. Those are things to me to where if the consensus is that that's what they want, and it makes sense, then why not do it, especially when you're going to make the people that are working for you happier by doing that.
KLUVER: Well, a lot of that like morale boosting that, that goes along with one of the biggest challenges facing the sheriff's department is staffing. What other avenues do you have to help increase staffing?
MOODY: Well, those are the things, if you fix those things, and you make the job more attractive and you bring in a new schedule and you bring in better uniforms, facial hair, I know it's something that, you know, other departments, like from Henry County and other agencies, they don't have a problem with facial hair, they have certain policies that are set up in such a way where you can wear a beard or a goatee, and it still looks professional. And it's not allowed at the sheriff's department, but it's not allowed with the other departments surrounding the area either, like here in Rock Island County. So even if you added something like that, I just know when we did the No Shave November, the officers loved it, but unfortunately, we only get to do that one month out of the year. So even adding little things like that, but you are correct. It really, it really everything is turned upside down in the last couple of years. And it all went from you know in 2020, and it was the "defund the police" movement and it's gotten so bad where now you're they're trying to pass a lot of these crime bills that are trying to get pushed through. The Safe-T Act is the big one, where it's just making it worse and no one wants to do the job. I can tell you when I came to Moline and I tested for Moline, it wasn't uncommon for 300 people to show up wanting to be a cop for testing. Now, they can't even get five or 10 people to show up. It's terrible. No one wants to do it. And they have to be able to, they have to change things to make bring more support to the profession, but they have to do other things to make it to where people are gonna want to do the job again.
KLUVER: So what can you as sheriff do to help this? Because we talk about the Safe-T Act, there's not a similar bill in Iowa, and yet Iowa is experiencing the same staffing issue problems as Illinois. So what ways can you as sheriff help tackle this problem?
MOODY: I can assure you, the biggest thing that's difference between Iowa and Illinois is the support factor. That is the big thing is that Illinois has been losing a ton of cops because of support. They don't feel like this support is there. Now, granted, a lot of these crime bills that are trying to be pushed through come from the Chicago area, or Springfield, or whatever, but we're all completely affected by it. That is the big thing. So what I want to be able to do is that everybody knows me as a cop's cop. Okay, I love people; I love building relationships with the public, but I'm a cop's cop. And everybody knows that. And so I, if I get elected here, I want to be able to use that platform in such a way where everybody knows that I'm going to support the profession. And I'm going to put myself out here in such a way to build better relationships with the public, where the public understands where we've come from. And we do what we do and why we do it, where there's more transparency. That platform has not been used in a way that it should, for the longest time, and I want to be able to change that. And that even goes into my connections or a relationship with the State's Attorney's Office. There's things they got to do on their end and make things better, too. And if they do that, it's going to bring more support to the law enforcement profession. And so that is key. And so I'm willing to put myself out there to do that. And everybody's gonna know that.
KLUVER: When it comes to working with county officials with the State's Attorney's Office, what do you bring to the table to help facilitate that relationship?
MOODY: I've been on the front lines; I've been a cop for almost 28 years, and most of my time was out there on the street on the front line. So I know what's needed on what, what's went wrong, and what needs to be improved. I mean, right now, it's little things like this to where, unfortunately, there's still there's a lot of stuff going on out there as far as the criminals have been emboldened; they've been empowered. So I don't know if you've even caught on, but like even the last week and a half, you see where there's been like over a dozen officers that have been shot, and half of them have been killed just in the last week.
KLUVER: We're not talking in the Quad City area?
MOODY: Not in the Quad City here, throughout the nation. Yes. But it goes even to were here in the Quad Cities where we still have so many people out there offenders and suspects that are resisting police officers when they're being placed under arrest, where they're not being compliant, and they're being noncompliant. And it's putting officers in more jeopardy, more chance of getting hurt, more chance of getting caught up in a bad situation. And you're still seeing the State's Attorney's Office not treating these charges like they should, and a lot of them are getting dismissed, which that really bothers me because when you have someone that's active resistor, when they've been told they're under arrest, and they're actively resisting, and you have an on body cam, you shouldn't be dismissing those charges. And if you keep doing that, it's going to continue to be a bigger problem. And it's going to make the job as a police officer even more difficult. So those are the things that I would like to see get rectified to get fixed or made better. And I'm definitely going to use my position in such a way to make sure that that happens.
KLUVER: Sheriff Bustos has been in office since 2014, and you've talked a lot about the change that's coming, whether it be you or your opponent, and how different it's going to be from the status quo. You've also talked about bringing a conservative voice to this office. Explain what you mean by that.
MOODY: A conservative voice is just like what I just got into is that we need the State's Attorney's Office. I know their job is extremely difficult, and they have so much caseload that comes through. But if your plea bargains aren't working, and it actually creates more crime out there, something needs to change. And so I think the plea bargains need to change a little bit. I definitely think they need to handle cases when it involves a police officer being assaulted or battered. I think that needs to be handled differently. Definitely when there's people out there resisting a police officer. So when I say I'm going to bring a more conservative voice, it's going to go against the grain what currently has been going on on for so long in Rock Island County. I can just tell you, and I hate to say this, but you can be a police officer in a big city here in Rock Island County, say for Rock Island or Moline PD and you can be out here on the streets working for 10 years and never see the courtroom. There's a problem with that. Okay, so it's telling me that the plea bargains are maybe too good of a plea bargain. Because if you're if you're a proactive cop, and you're never seen in the courtroom, there's something wrong with that. I came from Henry County. And I was very proactive out there, especially with my days in Colona, and I was in court every single week. Now, I don't want to be where everybody's in court all the time. But we have to make people more accountable for what they're doing. Because if we don't, we're gonna see more habitual criminals out there, we're gonna see more violent crimes out there. And it's just going to keep going in that direction. Right now, I think they have over 20 people sitting in the Rock Island County jail that are facing murder charges. We have to be a little more stern with what's going on. And I think if they work that angle, and they would go with that approach, I think things are going to improve, because if they don't, it makes the job as a cop a lot harder. It's going to bring in more cases of caseload for the state strings office anyway, so it's going to make their jobs harder. Okay, so if that means we have to fill up the jails a little bit more here, until things get better than that's probably what needs to be done.
KLUVER: When it comes to citizens watching at home who aren't cops. maybe you don't have a police officer in their family, what can you tell them about things that might change if you're elected?
MOODY: Well, I'm also known for being my ability to connect with the public. And I've done that through my community-oriented policing. I was so heavily involved with the public when it came to all that. And, and I think that part of when when we get a little bit away from that, that creates problems, too. It's like, even when our time in the West End, when we're done here, we're done it for years. Well, we did so well, the problems went away. And so what do they do, they left the units and remove them. Or when we're over in Springbrook, we were over there for a long time. And they they yanked the program, because everything got so much better. But community-oriented policing definitely works. And I would love to see that incorporated in with the sheriff's department, when they're working these, these small towns, like Andalusia, for instance, or Carbon Cliff, where the officers are more interacting with the kids and into the schools. I think that's going to change. So those things are really important to me. I was also known, you know, like, one of the big things when I went back to patrol, one of the things I think that you see police departments doing much better job with is that they're definitely using their social media in such a way where they're connecting with the public better, and they're sharing all the good stuff. We were really not good at that at one time. We just we we weren't sharing all the good stuff we were doing with the public. And so they weren't really aware of it; they thought we were just out there writing tickets and arresting people, but the job was so much more than that. So I think they're doing a wonderful job with that. The sheriff's department, if I'm elected, I'm definitely going to use social media in such a way that it's going to definitely build more connections and better connections with the public. And I want to be more involved with the city departments to where you got some of these crimes that are going on, for instance, what the juvenile crimes a lot has to do with like stolen vehicles. Well, the sheriff has the opportunity, and he has the authority where he can deputize officers from other departments. And that's one of the things where he could do, too, if I was elected to her, I can deputize officers from all the area departments create a team, where they can go out and deal with certain crimes that are that are getting out of control where they can work as a team to deal with that, like drug interdiction, or you know, stolen vehicles, or stuff like that. So I'm so open minded to doing things differently and for change, but knowing that, you know, good things can come from that. So I'm gonna definitely, that's gonna be my approach, do that. And then, even like I did, I started on a small scale to where when I went back to patrol out of investigations, I wanted to do one big kind of one act of kindness, a big act once a year, and it started off where I helped a homeless guy. And it was a guy that I really liked in Moline, we never got calls a service on him. He was a good dude. And I surprised him on Christmas Eve morning with a care package which was with a new coat and boots and all that kind of stuff. And they shared it on social media. It was done in such a way to encourage other people. If you can do something nice, and it's, and someone can't return the favor, then just do it. And so the following year, I went to an accident scene, and the lady crash her car, and it was totaled. And I surprised her the following day with a new car. Well, I was just going to share that on social media again to encourage other people to do nice things. And the department got a hold of it a few hours away from me given a car away and they pleaded with me to share this or allow the media to share it because we need a good story at that point, because we were getting beat down so bad, law enforcement was. And so I agreed to let it be shared. And it turned into something so much bigger. What I learned from that is that the public wants to be involved, they want to help. I had so many businesses reaching out to me, wanting to donate, to me continuing to give away cars. And I had banks that were reaching out to me wanting to do the same thing. And I didn't take any of that; I did team up with a bank. And we ended up doing like six or seven more car giveaways. And it was really easy. And I'm just like, there's so many neat things that can be done, that we can connect with the public. And that was all based off calls of service to where I would go to a call and a guy's car would burn up in the hospital parking lot. And the next day, you're surprised him what the vehicle because they had no means to get a vehicle. And so I'm open-minded enough to even know that so many great things can happen that way as well. And I want to incorporate some of that stuff, too, if I get elected.
KLUVER: What do you view is the responsibility of the sheriff's position?
MOODY: Well, the sheriff's position, there's a lot of responsibility there. But the sheriff is elected by the people, so you're working for the people. And I think the platform needs to be made or used in such a way that you are truly being transparent with the people. And you're communicating with the people, and you're letting them know what's going on. And if something pops up, and it doesn't make sense, you get out in front of it and you explain it. Because not only you're going to make your department better, and it's going to be better for them, but you're going to make it better for all the area police departments as well. So there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that job. And I know it even with the budget concerns and stuff like that, too. So I'm gonna go in there, and I'm gonna do an awesome job, if I get elected. There's no doubt in my mind.
KLUVER: Let's say that November 8 does not go your way, would you support your opponent and this process?
MOODY: Oh, absolutely. I want the sheriff's department to be successful no matter what the law enforcement family is my extended family, so even though I'm retired and I've been retired two years from it, win or lose, I want the best for all of them. And so that includes my opponent and for whatever reason he wins, yes.
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