Kankakee County Sexual Assault Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT)

On September 1, 2004 Kankakee County embarked on a mission to coordinate local law enforcement officers, prosecutors, probation officers, medical personnel, victim service providers and the judiciary in their response to victims of sexual assault.

The goal of this collaborative effort is to increase community awareness of sexual assault and to provide a specialized and compassionate response to victims of sexual assault and abuse while improving evidence collection, initial response, victim interviews, and victim referrals.

With the support of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) and federal funds from the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Kankakee County Center Against Sexual Assault (KC-CASA), State’s Attorney’s Office, Probation Department and Sheriff’s Department were awarded funding for a three year project.  Due to the success of the first three years funding was awarded to continue the project for a fourth year.

In the spirit of interagency cooperation, MDT members from 15 different agencies meet monthly to problem solve, conduct case reviews, work to standardize sexual assault protocols, network to build relationships and discuss issues related to sexual assault.

Since the inception of the MDT Project KC-CASA has added 2 Advocates, one of which is bi-lingual, and a Project Coordinator.  A data collection system has been developed to track a variety of information on sexual assault cases from disclosure to conviction, as well as the offenders progress through probation or parole. 

The State’s Attorney’s Office has added an additional Prosecutor to aid in expediting prosecution of sex offenders and any violations of probation or violations of sex offender registration.

Probation has added a Probation Officer to assist the department with the supervision and management of sex offenders sentenced to Kankakee County’s Sex Offender Probation Program.

The Sheriff’s Department on behalf of Law Enforcement Agencies throughout Kankakee County has purchased digital cameras, laptop computers and supplements Officer’s over-time when working on a sexual assault case.

Kankakee County hospital emergency rooms received forensic photography equipment to aid and improve the evidence collection process.

Professional training is also provided for MDT members on the roles and duties of Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART) and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE).

Kankakee County Sexual Assault Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) Members

Kankakee County Center Against Sexual Assault (KC-CASA)
Provena St. Mary’s Hospital
Riverside Medical Center
Dr. Degaulle Haile, OBGYN
Kankakee County Sheriff’s Department
Kankakee City Police Department
Bourbonnais Police Department
Bradley Police Department
Herscher Police Department
Illinois State Police
Kankakee County State’s Attorney’s Office
Kankakee County Probation Department
Child Network
Catholic Charities
Olivet University