Fraternal Order of Police lodge and Lake County sheriff spar over group’s name

Officials in the Lake County Sheriff’s Office are at odds with a local social club for current and retired police officers over its name, which they say confuses people.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Police Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 66 is hosting a charity poker game in Gurnee Saturday. But sheriff’s officials in June sent the club a letter, after it hosted a similar card game, saying its name misrepresents the organization’s relationship with the department. The letter asked the club to stop using “Lake County Sheriff’s” on its website and in future advertisements, among other things.

According to the group’s president, Lodge 66 is a social club, open to any retired or active service police officers from any department in the county.

“We get calls all the time from people who ask us why we are soliciting money when they already pay taxes,” Undersheriff Ray Rose said.

Rose said the sheriff’s department does not “do solicitiations of any kind,” and is not involved with the group “in any way, shape or form.”

Rose said there are two unions that represent the patrol deputies, their supervisors and the correctional staff, and they are the Teamsters and Illinois Council of Police Members unions.

“They don’t represent or negotiate with anybody,” Rose said of Lodge 66.

But current Lodge 66 President Darryl Lewallen said the group was chartered in December of 1973 as a fraternal group, and to establish a lodge with the FOP, it needs at least 10 members. He said the group allows other active law enforcement officers from other agencies to join.

“We accept everyone. We don’t discriminate,” said Lewallen, adding that he retired from the sheriff’s office four years ago.

“We are in good standing with the attorney general and the secretary of state’s office,” he said.

Illinois Fraternal Order of Police President Chris Southwood, who heads the umbrella organization for FOP lodges in the state, said in a press release that he believes the dispute is politically motivated. Southwood said in the release that Sheriff Mark Curran belonged to the same organization until the group endorsed a different FOP Lodge 66 member who also was running for sheriff.

“All FOP members statewide pledge to stand with our brothers and sisters in Lake County to continue doing what we do best, supporting and raising money for our friends and neighbors who need help the most,” Southwood said in the release.

Curran acknowledged he was part of the group at one time, but said it doesn’t matter when it comes to the use of the sheriff’s office’s name.

Eileen Boyce, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Attorney General’s office, said Lodge 66 is listed as a charitable organization with the state under “Lake County Fraternal Order of Police.”

“They are registered and they are in compliance,” she said. “But we have reached out to them to verify a few things concerning their fundraising process.”

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