Featured Officer

Archive: Summer 09 | Fall 09 | winter 09

 

 

Sergeant Kris Schmidt of the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department patrols the rural roads of this northwest Illinois county. Approximately six months per year he works the night shift and focuses his attention on detecting and investigating impaired drivers. Sergeant Schmidt has made over 300 career DUI arrests with 52 arrests in 2009. He has been presented with the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety’s 250 arrests pin. Prior to joining the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department in 2001, Sergeant Schmidt spent five years as a law enforcement officer in DeWitt, Iowa where he also reached the rank of Sergeant.

Sergeant Schmidt is an energetic supporter of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST). He has successfully completed the week-long National Highway Traffic Safety Administration SFST Instructor School and has put that training to use in providing SFST updates to fellow deputies within the department. Sergeant Schmidt also provides SFST instruction for the Police Training Institute and Mobile Training Units 1, 2 and 4. With the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent opinion in the McKown case, he looks forward to the continued admissibility of the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test and to sharing his observations about HGN by testifying in upcoming DUI trials.

Whiteside County Chief Deputy Larry VanDyke lauds Sergeant Schmidt’s ongoing focus on DUI enforcement which has increased the Department’s overall enforcement visibility and has saved many lives. Sergeant Schmidt and his wife Sarah, a Sterling police officer, reside in rural Morrison where they enjoy spending time with their children.