New Sangamon County Sheriff talks plans for office

UPDATE on 9/19 at 8:29 a.m.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — After winning votes from the majority of the Sangamon County Board Wednesday night, Paula Crouch was officially named the new Sheriff.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — Paula Crouch will go in front of the Sangamon County Board Wednesday night expecting to become the next Sheriff.

She was nominated for the role by Sangamon County Board Chairman Andy Van Meter earlier this week. Crouch previously served as Deputy Circuit Clerk for the county. She also worked as a lieutenant for the Springfield Police Department before retiring in 2023.

Crouch is expected to take over for former Sheriff Jack Campbell, who resigned following the death of Sonya Massey . Now- former Sangamon County Sheriff Deputy Sean Grayson shot and killed Massey in her home after she called 911.

When asked why she wanted to take over the Sheriff’s office, Crouch pointed to her “fresh outlook.”

“I felt like with my experience in law enforcement, that I could really bring a fresh outlook to the Sheriff’s Office I have a lot of community service experience as far as working with different agencies and different community members that I thought that maybe that the Sheriff’s Office has not had the opportunity to be a part of those.”

Crouch said she is “excited” to work with the Sonya Massey Commission — an independent group created by Van Meter and State Senator Doris Turner to come up with reforms for the office and other community offices.

“I’m actually excited to hear what the commission is going to bring to us,” Crouch said. “You know, the goal, I think, of a Sheriff and really all the police officers is to know what your community wants, you know, and that could be something as simple as maybe they want officers stopping by the schools every day. Maybe they want you know, I hate to use the word, but a no-nonsense approach to certain types of crimes, if there’s burglaries or whatever. And I know that’s not really what the Massey Commission is necessarily talking about, or the kinds of changes that they’re wanting to bring, but I’m anxious to see what they do want to bring.”

But Crouch did not offer up any concrete plans for her early days in office. When appointed, Crouch will serve out the rest of Campbell’s term. She mainly focused on all she needs to learn about the office and it’s employees.

“My day one idea is finding out who my people are. And when I say that, I mean understanding their backgrounds, knowing where they came from, knowing what their experiences, knowing strengths, and weaknesses,” Crouch said. “Because I really think to understand what’s going on in your department, you have to know who you have in your department. So that’s my day one plan that obviously won’t be done in a day. But I think that’s very important is to understand what we’re doing and meeting with the directors and the department heads to find out where they think there’s weaknesses and where they think their strengths and how we can tackle those to make those changes.”

When pressed for her early agenda, she referenced reviewing the hiring practices of the department, although didn’t offer specifics for what she would want to change.

“I think my first agenda is honestly to get that get the hiring practices in place that are necessary,” Crouch said. “You know, we need to review our employee files, see where we’re at, see what we need to do to have the agency and you know, it’s the jail, it’s the court security, it’s the deputies all working together so that we can be functional.”

The county has so far directed a lot of the conversation around reform towards the Massey Commission, which is expected to spend the next year trying to find opportunities to improve several different systems at both the local and state level. The commission still needs to be approved, however. That vote will also come Wednesday night.

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