About the Will County Sheriff's Office

In 1836 the County of Will was formed, with a citizen appointed as Sheriff, reluctant as he was. In 2009, there are over 500 employees in one of the fastest growing counties in the country. We've come a long way from horse and buggy that took a day, and sometimes over, to travel from one end of Will County to the other.

In the 1800's, the Sheriff may have had to handle a call from horse thieving in Beecher, to labor strifes in the mines of Braidwood. To handle these two calls may have taken up to a week. Now, deputies travel from one end of the county to the next in minutes, handling numerous complaints during an eight-hour shift. From having no telephones or electric, to computers, radios and other high tech equipment at their disposal. The Will County Sheriff's Office, in its early conception, had a jail cell capable of holding 6 inmates. In 2009, the newly expanded facility can handle roughly 1000 inmates.