07/22/2026
PRESS RELEASE : LETTER FROM THE SHERIFF – VILLAGE OF HARDIN AGREEMENT
Please see the attached letter from Sheriff Zach Hardin, which outlines a recently signed mutual inter-governmental agreement between the Calhoun of Calhoun and the Village of Hardin.
"Dear Citizens of Calhoun County, and Residents of the Village of Hardin:
On July 1st 2026, at the Calhoun County Government Building in Hardin, Calhoun County, Illinois, I had the honor to assist in arranging an agreement between the Village of Hardin and the County of Calhoun for the purpose of adding an additional Deputy Sheriff, paid for by the Village of Hardin; in return for 40-Hours of weekly scheduled police protection and extra patrols within the Village of Hardin.
This agreement was reached with the full support of the Mayor and Board of the Village of Hardin, and the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners.
In 2020, the Hardin Police Department was dissolved, and our agency is currently the only Law Enforcement Agency within Calhoun County, Illinois.
At the time that Sheriff Heffington took office in 2006, the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office maintained a full-time staff of a Sheriff and five (5) Deputies; which was supplemented by the assistance and support of the Hardin Police Department. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office currently maintains a staff of four (4) full-time Deputies and the Sheriff.
Based on industry standards and state-wide averages, the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office is below staffing by approximately two (2) full-time Deputies.
In 2024, some of you may remember when I first attempted to address our staffing issues and find a resolution with the assistance and cooperation of both the Village of Hardin and the County of Calhoun, but after many meetings and contract adjustments, no agreement could be met.
In 2026, I was appointed to the Office of Sheriff and I revisited this matter. For the past few months I have been negotiating with the Village of Hardin and the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners to find a mutually beneficial resolution to serve the needs of everyone.
Formerly, the Hardin Police Department generally maintained a part-time staff, however due to the small size of our Sheriff’s Office, those part-time hours provided critical coverage and additional officers to handle calls in the village and assisted with officer safety to ensure multiple officers were available to respond to incidents.
The Village of Hardin currently maintains the highest population in Calhoun County, and accounts for over 50% of the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office’s calls for service and traffic stops. The added time exhausted by the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office attending to matters in the Village of Hardin causes other areas of the county to receive less attention.
In addition to the above-mentioned facts, our profession has seen a massive increase in mandated training required by State and Federal Laws to maintain compliance and status as a certified law enforcement agency. These additional training mandates can improve operational effectiveness, but hinder the agency’s ability to maintain adequate staffing to cover patrol duties and respond to emergency calls..
In the modern digital age, we find our investigations have become highly sophisticated, time consuming, and further hinder the amount of patrol time available to our Deputies. These investigations will only continue to grow in their complexity as we continue to adapt to new challenges associated with the rapid advance of technology and cyber-crimes.
The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office currently employs the best trained deputies that it has ever had, which includes deputies certified in Lead Homicide Investigation, Crisis Intervention, Juvenile Law, Drug Interdiction, and Advanced Roadside Impairment.
Due to the training and experience of the current staff of CCSO, our agency has routinely solved cases that require a large number of investigations, search warrants, follow-up, and interviews. Although the department has been immensely successful in solving cases as they come across, this severely limits the amount of time the deputies are able to work patrol shifts.
In addition to the skill and dedication of the department, the current trends have crime increasing and not decreasing, which has caused an uptick in the caseload and investigations currently undertaken by members of this department.
Lastly, and most importantly; the number of Deputies allotted to our agency directly correlates with the safety of our public and our brave Law Enforcement Officials. Myself personally, and all members of my staff can attest, from experience; how dangerous it can be to be the sole responding Officer to a critical incident. Furthermore, I can also attest to how critical minutes can be to victims when it comes to response times.
Following this agreement, our office will be able to bolster our numbers to five (5) full-time certified Deputies and the Sheriff. This will allow for Deputies to more frequently be scheduled with an additional Deputy; which will increase officer safety and improve response times county-wide, and add more resources available for the resolution of incidents.
I am very pleased to make this announcement, as I truly believe this is an agreement that will benefit the Village of Hardin and the Calhoun County; and provide all of us with a safer community.
You can expect to see a higher presence of Law Enforcement within the Village of Hardin, but all citizens can expect to see a larger presence county-wide, as this will allow the scheduling of overlapping coverage.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Village of Hardin Mayor Dave Hurley, and the Hardin Village Board as well as the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners for their support in this important improvement to public safety within the Village of Hardin and Calhoun County.
Respectfully, Sheriff Zach Hardin"
(Pictured L to R: Calhoun County Sheriff Zach Hardin, Calhoun County Commissioner Phil Robeen, and Village of Hardin Mayor Dave Hurley. Photo courtesy of River County News.)
