James E. O'Grady

Chicago Police Department career Early career In 1952, O'Grady became a member of the Chicago Police Department.

Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department After the resignation of James M. Rochford as Superintendent of Police, mayor Michael Bilandic appointed O'Grady as his replacement on April 10, 1978.

Interim private sector career O'Grady founded the private security firm Special Operations Associates (SOA), which he co-owned with James Dvorak, Daniel M. Davis, and Mike Caccitolo. He was the first Republican elected to countywide office there since Bernard Carey,

In 1988, his undersheriff James Dvorak made a successful bid to be Chairman of the Cook County Republican Party Dvorak had been backed by Governor James R. Thompson against incumbent Donald Totten.

Despite having campaigned against vice, under O'Grady, the number of arrests made for gambling and prostitution greatly declined. This occurred during a restructuring of the office's previously scandal-plagued vice unit.

Investigations and corruption in Sheriff's office Corruption was significant in the Cook County Sheriff's Office under O'Grady's tenure.

Federal investigators began investigating both O'Grady and his undersheriff James Dvorak in 1989.

In November 1989, the Chicago Tribune released a two-part series which alleged that, "Sheriff O'Grady has demanded thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from deputies and given sensitive law-enforcement jobs to political cronies."

In early 1990, O'Grady and Dvorak were investigated by a federal grand jury for directing a $1.8 million contract to Home Incarceration Systems of Illinois (HISNI).

In 1990, it arose that alleged mob boss Ernest Rocco Infelice had, on tape recorder, shared allegations with a federal informant that he had paid $10,000 on a monthly basis to Dvorak for protection from vice investigations. O'Grady was not indicted.

In 1990, he was defeated for reelection by a broad margin by Sheahan.

Electoral history 1987

1990