Rock Island Today

Rock Island County sheriff candidate Patrick Moody said he is running for the office in an attempt to improve the image of law enforcement and interactions with the community. 

Moody aims to provide the department with a new direction. 

“I just retired in July of 2020 and unfortunately, I think law enforcement has been demonized,” Moody told Rock Island Today. “There’s been false narratives pushed on law enforcement for many, many years. And the last couple of years, when we went through all this, it was pretty bad. It was tough being a cop out on the street. And unfortunately, the current sheriff we have now, he had such an incredible platform where he could have got out there and got in front of it and really took some of those problems away for us. And he didn't utilize his platform in such a way that he could make things better for everybody.” 

Moody said one bad apple doesn't poison everything.

“Here in the Quad Cities, law enforcement is incredible, and it's rare when you get a bad cop out there. Everybody toes the line. There may be bigger problems in other areas throughout the country but here in the Quad Cities, it's completely different. But we still suffered from all that. And so that's one of the big things that I want to be able to use that platform in such a way to correct the wrong when things like that happen," he said.

Moody also envisions building bridges and connecting with the public in a way where they are more informed on why officers do what they do as well as educating the public on how to decrease crimes. He also mentioned that it is vital to rectify jail issues.

“One of the problems that we have here in Rock Island County is that I just don't think there's enough being done with habitual offenders, violent offenders. There's not enough being done through the courts," he said. "And I think the sheriff has a unique opportunity to put pressure on that problem and rectify it, make it better. And even like the juvenile problems here in the Quad Cities, where the juvenile offenders are so completely out of control and there's just not much being done through the courts and the public is not fully aware of how big of a problem it really is. So I want to be able to make that better as well.” 

Moody said he wants to be able "to deputize all the jailers so you can add value to their positions over there, and it gives them extra responsibilities that they're not authorized to do or can't do now because of their title. So I think a lot of that can be fixed." He further noted that the morale in jail management "is absolutely horrible over there," and has emphasized that many "are getting out of it completely or they're jumping ship and going to another department."

He recently came out against the SAFE-T Act which would criminalize officers for body cam violations and provide cashless bail to offenders, allowing for a revolving door in which criminals are allowed back onto the streets. Moody argued that the bill would hurt law enforcement and public safety, Rock Island Today reported.

Moody is running against Democrat Darren Hart of Hampton.

The two are running to replace Gerald Bustos, who has served as sheriff since 2014, according to River Cities' Reader.