Southern Illinois U.S. Attorney’s Office Honors Law Enforcement During National Police Week

CARBONDALE, Illinois — U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois marked National Police Week on May 11, 2026, by publicly recognizing the service of local, state and federal law enforcement partners.

The office’s statement applies to every law enforcement agency with which federal prosecutors in the 38 southernmost Illinois counties coordinate on cases ranging from drug trafficking and violent crime to public corruption and child exploitation. No specific headcount appears in the release, yet the district’s law enforcement community includes more than 100 municipal police departments, 20 county sheriff’s offices, the Illinois State Police and multiple federal agencies including the FBI, DEA and ATF.

The observance changes nothing in ongoing operations or pending cases. It functions as an annual public reaffirmation that federal charging decisions, joint task forces and grant programs supporting law enforcement will continue without interruption. No new funding, policy or statutory deadline attaches to the statement.

Downstream, the recognition keeps inter-agency task forces intact by reinforcing prosecutorial commitment to officer safety and line-of-duty death investigations. It triggers no congressional reporting requirement, but it does coincide with the standard May cycle in which the Justice Department reviews applications for the Bulletproof Vest Partnership and other COPS Office grants that flow to departments inside the Southern District.

State and local agencies must still file their own documentation to access those funds by their respective deadlines later in the calendar year. The statement also serves as a reference point for any future line-of-duty death prosecutions brought under 18 U.S.C. § 1114 in the district’s federal courthouse in East St.

Louis.

This marks the second consecutive year the Southern District office has issued a formal National Police Week statement under Weinhoeft, who was sworn in during the prior administration. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has observed the week each May since Congress established National Police Week in 1962; the current release contains no new policy announcements and tracks the standard language used in prior years.