By admin 
A member of a prominent family in city emergency services in Illinois has been decertified as a police officer.
Read more Kentucky custody judge texted, ate and rolled her eyes in court, commission says
Last month, the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board adopted the recommendations of an administrative law judge and a certification review panel by
Judge Sarah Carlson concluded that Simmons Jr. falsely claimed on job applications he submitted to police departments in Dupo, Cahokia Heights and Sauget in 2024 that he graduated from Dupo Junior/Senior High School, according to board documents.
Carlson also concluded that Simmons Jr. falsely claimed he had a high school diploma from a homeschooling program when he applied to Brooklyn Police Department, which hired him in 2025.
“Society gives law enforcement officers tremendous responsibility and power,” Carlson wrote in her report. “A certified, sworn law enforcement officer can legally deprive citizens of their freedom and property for violations of the law. That is why these persons are held to a standard of integrity and truthfulness that is codified (in Illinois law).
“A law enforcement officer shall not bring the reputation of the profession into disrepute by making misrepresentations to get a job,” the judge continued. “(Simmons Jr.) knew better.”
Also a volunteer firefighter
Simmons Jr., 24, is a firefighter with Prairie du Pont Fire & Rescue, formerly Prairie du Pont Fire Protection District, a volunteer fire department in East Carondelet that also covers Dupo and surrounding communities.
His father, Jerame Simmons Sr., is the department’s fire chief and a former part-time East Carondelet police officer. His grandfather, Herb Simmons, is director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, mayor of East Carondelet, a former Washington Park police officer, former police chief in East Carondelet and a member of other public boards.
Jerame Simmons Jr. answered the phone at the main Prairie du Pont fire station Thursday, but the call disconnected after a BND reporter asked about the decertification. No one answered a callback.
Simmons Sr. didn’t respond to requests for comment, nor did his wife, Chrissy Simmons. Both testified at an administrative hearing earlier this year concerning their son’s education.
John Parke, president of the Prairie du Pont board, said Thursday that he had heard Simmons Jr. was no longer a police officer, but he didn’t know about the decertification.
Firefighters don’t do police work, Parke said, but “you have to have a high school diploma (or GED equivalent) to be in our department so you can go for continuing education.”
Graduated academy in 2024
Simmons Jr. graduated from Southwestern Illinois College Police Academy on July 13, 2024, according to a Facebook post by Prairie du Pont that included a photo of Parke congratulating him.
Simmons Jr.’s listing in the Training and Standard Board’s directory states that he was certified as a police officer on Aug. 14, 2024, and was employed part-time for East Carondelet from July 18, 2023, to June 16, 2025, part-time for Brooklyn from June 5, 2025, to June 25, 2025, and full-time for Brooklyn from July 25, 2025, to Aug. 25, 2025.
East Carondelet Police Chief Rodney Stone said Simmons Jr.’s start date reflects his enrollment at the academy and that he wouldn’t have been able to serve as a police officer until after being certified.
“He’s no longer with our department, but when he left, it wasn’t on bad terms,” Stone said. “I believe he was going onto Brooklyn to start a full-time career in law enforcement.”
Brooklyn Police Chief Tony Tomlinson didn’t respond to a request for comment on the case.
Complaint filed last year
The Training and Standards Board filed a complaint against Simmons Jr. on Aug. 25, 2025, alleging he had “engaged in deceptive behavior” and violated the Illinois Police Training and Standards Act by making false statements on the four job applications.
Carlson presided over an April 27 hearing at which Simmons Jr. was represented by Belleville attorney Patrick Sullivan, according to the judge’s 18-page report and recommendation, dated June 25.
Read more Folsom City Council to consider e-bike, e-moto ordinance with harsher penalties
Simmons Jr. testified that when he applied for the jobs in Dupo, Cahokia Heights, Sauget and Brooklyn, he believed he had a valid Dupo Junior/Senior High School diploma, which his parents had given him as a result of his homeschooling, yet he was still trying to pass the GED test.
Training and Standards Board Field Investigator Brent Shownes then testified about an interview he conducted with Simmons Jr. on April 2, 2025, at the Columbia Police Department.
“He informed me that he was not homeschooled, did not receive a GED and he did graduate from Dupo high school,” said Shownes, who formerly served as Troy police chief.
When asked about the interview, Simmons Jr. said he didn’t remember telling Shownes that he wasn’t homeschooled.
Diploma described as ‘fake’
Keith Book, principal at Dupo Junior/Senior High School, and Lori Costello, regional superintendent of schools for St. Clair County, also appeared at the hearing, according to Carlson’s report.
Book testified that Simmons Jr. had been in and out of the school system, at one point leaving to attend Menta Academy for students with special needs. Book said he dropped out in 2021, and his parents didn’t notify officials that they planned to homeschool him.
Costello testified that Simmons Jr. had been awarded a temporary, unofficial diploma after a testing agency initially thought he had passed the GED test, but the agency later revoked a grade on a portion of the test, citing concerns about possible cheating.
Costello said Simmons Jr. still hadn’t passed the GED test in its entirety as of April, despite three more attempts in 2026.
Book and Costello examined a high school diploma that listed Simmons Jr. as a graduate of Dupo Junior/Senior High School and was signed by his parents. Costello said she considered the document “fake” because Chrissy Simmons and Simmons Sr. weren’t authorized to issue it.
“Book explained that people using falsified or unearned high school diplomas devalues the education that other students have received by attending and clearing all the milestones to be considered a graduate,” Carlson wrote in her report.
Family members testify
Chrissy Simmons testified at the hearing that after she decided to homeschool Simmons Jr., she spoke with an unnamed Springfield education official who told her she needed to teach “English, math, things like that” and test him on the material, but wasn’t required to keep records.
Simmons Sr. said he didn’t provide instruction but helped ensure his son was completing assignments. He signed the diploma, which his wife presented five months after homeschooling began.
Chrissy Simmons said she again contacted education officials after Simmons Jr. completed the homeschooling program in 2021, and they referred her to a website where she could get his diploma.
“I literally could print any high school diploma that I wanted and pay for it,” Chrissy Simmons said at the hearing.
The decertification case isn’t the first public controversy involving the Simmons family. In 2021, many of the firefighters with Prairie du Pont quit after the board appointed Jerame Simmons Sr. as fire chief.
Simmons Sr. had pleaded guilty in St. Clair County Circuit Court to felony arson in 1998 for setting a fire at a vacant house and having an illegal “oscillating emergency light” on his personal vehicle. He later successfully completed four years of intensive probation.
As part of a plea agreement, officials dismissed a charge of attempted aggravated arson. Simmons Sr. had been accused of setting toilet paper and ceiling tiles on fire in the basement of Dupo Senior High School. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pardoned him in 2021. In an interview that year, Simmons Sr. said he wished people would let him move on from his mistakes as a teenager.
This story was originally published October 27, 2026 at 5:20 AM with the headline “Illinois officer made false claims on 4 police applications, judge says. Now he’s decertified.”
Read more This California Latino voter guide backs Republicans. Who is behind it?