NWH: Investigate all public employees?

The editors of the Northwest Herald ask a good question in Sunday's Our View editorial:

"Will the special prosecutors next investigate all public employees who drive public vehicles to determine whether they used them for personal reasons?"

I may be wrong, but I believe that McHenry County Sheriff's deputies can drive their take-home patrol cars for personal reasons, if they are alone in the vehicle, armed, and will take action if they encounter certain types of illegal activities. On that basis, I don't disagree with a take-home car.

If a deputy is out at Home Depot or Jewel and encounters a thief or at the gas pump and witnesses or is alerted to a drive-off, go get 'em. Of course, if he had his wife or kid in the car, he wouldn't (shouldn't) put them at risk, which is the reason he is not supposed to transport family members in his patrol car. And certainly no one but the assigned deputy/employee should drive the take-home vehicle.

What kind of personal reason or personal business wouldn't fall into permissible use? Let's say the deputy is an Amway distributor. He shouldn't use the patrol car to deliver products. That's his part-time "business".

Garrison Keillor had a great song two weeks ago on Prairie Home Companion called "Tailgater". He sang about carrying a load of fresh horse manure in the trunk of his car. If he was being tailgating, he's just pop the trunk and dump the load in front of the tailgater. Or 100 bowling balls in front of another tailgater. OK, OK; it was just a song...

Let's say the MCSD employee lives on a farm. Should he be able to haul hay or straw in his County-owned, take-home vehicle? If he does, who cleans out the vehicle? Does he?