Cronin announces bid for coroner position
COEUR d'ALENE - When it comes to death investigation, Tom Cronin wrote the book.
Seriously.
The former Coeur d'Alene police chief, who filed his candidacy for Kootenai County coroner on Tuesday, points to his published articles in forensic science manuals as evidence of his qualifications.
"My whole investigative career has been in this area," the 65-year-old said.
That's only one of a few reasons he said he's fit for the position of coroner, which examines thousands of deaths in the county each year.
Cronin, originally from Chicago, was with Chicago law enforcement for 31 years, many of them as a police investigator dealing with violent crimes.
He was one of a handful in 1986 chosen to attend a yearlong fellowship with the FBI's behavioral science unit, he said, where he learned the nuances of death investigation.
"Just looking at an individual's behavior, the days, weeks, hours before a death to figure out what was going on in this guy's mind," he said. "How to go about making the decision of if it's a suicide or homicide."
Afterward he put that fellowship to use serving as a criminal profiler for the Chicago Police Department, as well as any other city agencies that needed help, he said.
"I've done hundreds of these kinds of investigations," he said.
He moved with his family to Coeur d'Alene in 2000 to become police chief. After three years, he left the department to help the Coeur d'Alene Tribe organize its police and justice departments. He retired in 2005.
He holds a bachelor's in criminal justice and a master's in social justice from Lewis University in Lockport, Ill.
He taught courses on death investigations, homicides and sexual assault at the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety in Evanston, Ill., from 1987 to 2000.
His articles on death investigations and autopsies were published in the '97 and '99 editions of "Treatises in Forensic Sciences," a manual for coroners and medical examiners. He currently teaches classes on public policy and criminal procedure at North Idaho College.
His relationship with local law enforcement will benefit him as coroner, he said, as the official often works with law enforcement at crime scenes.
"I have a leg up there," he said. "The bottom line is if you're not a person who cooperates, you'll never get things done."
Cronin is married and has a grown daughter and stepdaughter.
His experience with death investigations has taught him the importance of working with all parties involved, he added.
"You realize you're just part of the team. The most important thing is the team has got dedicated people who are all smart and all bring something else to the table that you don't have," he said. "It's a team of experts, and that's how you make these kinds of decisions."