Kristopher Schmidt, Republican Candidate for Whiteside County Sheriff, stated Sterling Police Department Sergeant Pat Bartel will become the Whiteside County Chief Deputy, if Schmidt wins election on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. His announcement was made 19 days before the General Election, on Thursday, October 18, at Centennial Park in Rock Falls, IL, at 10:00 a.m.
The photo location was an illustrative choice. “Bridging the Gap and Bridging Communities” has been a campaign goal for Schmidt. He noted the bridge symbolizes his promise to “bridge the gap between the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Office and Law Enforcement agencies we serve with, as well as between the citizens of several municipalities in Whiteside County.”
“I learned in the military you always need to have an outside source” to solve problems and make changes. “You have a core training group, but you go out for information in a desire to grow. To make changes to the Sheriff’s Office in a positive way, I had to go outside.” Choosing Bartel from the Sterling Police Department “will help the Sheriff’s Department to find where our strengths and weaknesses are and to become a better Department for the County.”
Sergeant Bartel stated, “I am honored, humbled, and a little awed. I am very grateful for the trust Kris has in me, and [to be able] to help complete the vision he has. This is huge for me…to take the Sheriff’s Department into a new age. Kris didn’t want a ‘yes man.’ Together, we play well off each other. I thank him for this opportunity.”
He will have served Sterling Police Department for 25 years as of March 2019. There are 31 SPD Officers including Bartel. (The Sheriff’s Office has about 100 employees.) His two main duties include “training Deputies and outreach, ie., initiatives, meet-and-greets, organization involvement in the communities you serve.”
As a Chief Deputy, he would bring to the job the benefit of “substantial trainings. I was
- a Community Policing Officer for one year
- the Field Training Supervisor
- in charge of Patrol, supervising three others
- on the Detective Division on both State and Federal investigations.”
If Schmidt is elected Sheriff, “I will go into training on [Monday,] December 3, when Kris does.”
Pat Bartel “was born and raised in Rock Falls,” and lives there still; he has “two children. Brycen, 17, is a Senior at Newman Central Catholic High School in Sterling; eight-year-old daughter Brenyn is a third grader at St. Andrew Catholic School Rock Falls.”
