Mary Hodge, First Deputy Inspector General
Mary Hodge, an experienced law enforcement officer, was named First Deputy Inspector General by Inspector General Hoffman in January 2006.
For 23 years, Hodge was a Chicago Police Officer, and for the last 13 of those years, Hodge worked on federal law enforcement task forces that prosecuted Chicago gang leaders and organized crime leaders. Hodge retired from the Chicago Police Department in 2000 and became Chief of Investigations and Intelligence for the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). In that position, Hodge was responsible for all of IDOC's internal investigations and ran a department that included 70 investigators. Hodge left that position in order to join the Inspector General's Office as First Deputy Inspector General.
Hodge joined the Chicago Police Department in 1977 and worked undercover in the Organized Crime Narcotics Unit. In 1984, she became a homicide detective. From 1985 to 1987, she also served as an instructor in at the Chicago Police Academy.
In 1987, Hodge joined the FBI Organized Crime Task Force and worked with FBI agents on investigations involving public corruption and organized-crime leaders, including the investigation of the First Ward and its connection to organized crime. As part of that investigation, the FBI placed a bug at the First Ward table at Counselors' Row restaurant. Hodge was manning the wire room and listening to the bug when it was discovered by restaurant workers.
In 1989, Hodge joined a federal task force that was investigating the Gangster Disciples street gang, then the largest gang in the Chicago area and one of the largest in the country. In conjunction with federal agents and prosecutors and Chicago police officers, Hodge led a long-term investigation that resulted in the conviction of approximately 70 Gangster Disciple leaders, including the Chairman of the Board, Larry Hoover. The investigation involved a large number of wiretaps and hundreds of witnesses. Hodge received DEA's Exceptional Service Award for this investigation, an award given annually for the agency's top investigations in the Nation.
From 1995 to 2000, Hodge worked as a special liaison to the U.S. Attorney's Office helping to prepare the Gangster Disciple cases for trial. Among other things, Hodge traveled around the country interviewing witnesses in the witness protection program to prepare them for trial.
In 2000, Hodge became IDOC's first Chief of Investigations and Intelligence, running a statewide gang intelligence program and overseeing investigators and intelligence officers at 35 state prisons. Hodge implemented a new gang intelligence system to identify gang leaders in each prison in order to limit gang organizing and violence.
Hodge was also IDOC's lead coordinator of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a gun-violence-reduction program funded by the Justice Department and operated jointly in Chicago by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, ATF, the Chicago Police Department, and IDOC. As part of her work with PSN, Hodge ran "parolee forums," a novel concept she helped to create. The forums have been credited by University of Chicago researchers with playing a substantial role in the recent, steep reduction of the homicide rate on Chicago's west side.
Among other awards, Hodge has received the Chicago Crime Commission's Star of Distinction; the Leadership Award from the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice; the Chicago Chamber of Commerce's Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement, and awards from the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office for her investigations. Hodge is a veteran of the United States Air Force.