LAKE COUNTY, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The American Rescue Plan Act funding has led to the approval of a long fought for expansion of the Lake County violent crimes unit.
Lake County Board has now unanimously approved state attorney Eric Rinehart's expansion of his newly created Violent Crimes Unit.
"They've always wanted me to have additional resources to tackle these cases and so it's very rewarding to finally get this done," he said.
Rinehart told WBBM that the county board had in the past acknowledged the need for more resources, but with a flat budget, a surge in violent crime cases over the last three years- it could not be immediately addressed.
"And so we pushed very hard within our office to argue that this type of expansion could be funded by ARPA," he said.
The funding is now expected to be available in January and the first steps will be to devote two additional prosecutors and a victim witness counselor to the Violent Crimes Unit.
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