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Law enforcement agency| Lake County Sheriff's Department | |
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| File:Sheriff Indiana.jpg | |
| Operational structure | |
| Sworn members | 174 |
| Facilities | |
| Stations | 1 |
Lake County of Indiana has the second largest population of the 92 counties in Indiana. The county covers approximately 501 square miles of the northwest corner of the state. The first Sheriff was elected in 1837, when Lake County Indiana was organized.
History
On July 4,1836 the "Squatters Union of Lake County" was organized for the sole purpose of adopting measures and forming a constitution for better security of the settlers on public land. On February 15,1837 Lake County,Indiana was organized and Henry Wells was appointed Sheriff by the Governor. It is popular belief that Wells walked to Indianapolis to receive his commission and returned again on foot , a two week trip each way. Wells was officially commissioned on March 8, 1837. The first county commisioners were elected on March 28, 1837. In april of 1837 the county commissioners appointed the Sheriff as collector of State and County revenues. In August of 1837, Luman Fowler was elected Sheriff in the first General Election in Lake County,Indiana.
Locations and Jails
In the Fall of 1882, a two-story Sheriff's House measuring 40x34 feet, and a jail, 120x50 feet, were completed on the south Main Street site at a cost of $24,000. The jail featured six steel cells for males, four steel cells for females, bathrooms, and strong steel corridors. An addition to the back of the jail measuring 65x50 feet, were built in 1926, which also featured Sheriff corridors and a third floor. The jail could then accomodate a maximum of 150 prisoners and was thought to be one of the finest in the state.
The current Lake County Jail, located at 2293 North Main Street was first occupied on January 5,1975. This facility has five floors and was constructed to house 286 inmates. It costed approximately $13.5 million dollars to build. In January of 1991 an $8 million dollar addition brought the capacity to 460 inmates. The average daily population is 525 inmates.
During the Spring of 1999, construction was begun on an addition to the 1991 addition and was completed in October of the year 2000. This new addition was constructed in a series of pods. Each pod contains cells located on two levels within the pod. In the pods, all cell doors open into a communal day room, where an inmate spends 14-16 hours a day.
The largest contrast between the previous jail and the current podular model is the way supervision is completed. In the previous jail, correctional officers could only supervise inmates by frequent foot patrols through the sections. With the podular concept, correctional officers are located in a secure area behind one-way glass. Officers are in direct visual contact with all activities in the pod at all times. This new power allowed there to be 560 additional beds, for a total of 1,085 beds.
Current Sheriff
Roy Dominguez is the 48th and current Sheriff of Lake County,Indiana. On January 1,2003 Roy Dominguez assumed the office of Lake County Sheriff.
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Sheriff Roy Dominguez
Roy Dominguez started his initial employment at Inland Steel where he worked as an apprentice millwright. In 1976, Roy enrolled in the Indiana State Police Academy. A year later, Roy Dominguez graduated first in his class and won the prestigous Donald Flint Award for oustanding cadet.
As an Indiana State Trooper, Roy attended night classes, at Indiana University Northwest and earned a bachelor's in sociology. Once Dominguez received the Law Degree, he joined the Lake County's Prosecutor's office in 1982 and was named Deputy Director of the Child Support program. He brought the law down on dead-beat parents and increased Child Support collections by 300%, from $3 million to $9 million.
In 1989, Governor Evan Bayh appointed Roy as chairman of the state Workers' Compensation Board. Under Roy's leadership, the Workers' Compensation Board was modernized and outdated workers' comp. laws were overhauled for the first time in 62 years.