Wednesday, October 7, 2009

If an official is "suspicious", he could be probed

From an article posted October 6th at Clout Street
The Cook County Board today voted to expand the power of county’s inspector general to investigate elected officials.

Inspector General Patrick Blanchard and his successors now will be able to initiate an investigation of an elected official on their own, providing they meet a U.S. Supreme Court standard of suspicion.
 Sounds pretty subjective.
Previously, the inspector general could investigate elected officials only if someone signed a complaint against that official.

Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, noted that the state now uses the same suspicion standard, one that falls somewhere lower than probable cause.
With the hearsay law in place, and now a standard that 'falls somewhere lower than probable cause', I see a lot of potential trouble here.  As if Cook County doesn't have enough.