Kendall County Times

The Kendall County Sheriff's Department remains "committed to continually assessing and evaluating our practices, procedures, and policies" amid nationwide police brutality protests, Sheriff Dwight Baird said in a recent social media post.

A data report about the department's pedestrian and traffic stops indicates no deputies had disproportionately taken actions against any minority groups, according to the second of two posts by Baird placed on the department's Facebook page.

"I want to assure you my staff and I are committed to continually assessing and evaluating our practices, procedures and policies to make certain all of our deputies are conducting themselves professionally and treating all persons we come in contact with respectfully and with dignity," Baird said.

Baird said he is "deeply committed to providing education and training for all our deputies" to a situation that lead to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

"As such the culture of the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office is to be fair, unbiased, and to only use that force which is reasonable and necessary," Baird said in his second Facebook post. "We ensure this through our long-standing policies and practices including a review of each and every use of force incident that is beyond compliant handcuffing."

Baird said his posts were intended to "expand upon" a post to the department's Facebook page earlier in which he referred to the potential for National Guard deployment in Illinois.

"The members of the Kendall County law enforcement community fully support and are here to protect the rights of freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble," Baird said in the earlier Facebook post. "We also fully support our communities’ rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, however, we will not and cannot tolerate criminal acts within our communities."