Police Reform Bill 'Drastically' Affects Law Enforcement: Sheriff

KENDALL COUNTY, IL — As officials in Illinois are divided over the new criminal law and police accountability reforms, Kendall County officials are also expressing their views regarding it.

Sheriff Dwight Baird said in a Facebook post last month that this reform will "essentially eliminate law enforcement in your communities as we know it."

"Bills of this magnitude cannot be taken lightly. Unfunded mandates and changes to the way law enforcement protects our communities should not be decided without input from those that it affects most," he said. "This House Bill will drastically affect the law enforcement community as well as the citizens we are sworn to protect. The negative effects of this bill will impact our state and local communities immediately, and last for years to come."

Gov. J.B. Pritzker held a signing ceremony Monday at Chicago State University with state lawmakers, law enforcement members and activists from community groups, and the signing of the bill has now made Illinois the first state in the nation to abolish cash bail for pretrial detention.

House Bill 3653, a criminal justice omnibus bill sponsored by the Legislative Black Caucus, passed the Senate 32-23 and the House by a vote of 60-50 with about an hour remaining in last month's lame-duck legislative session. Pritzker said the bill's sponsors had pushed to address systemic racism following national protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The bill also requires all officers to wear body cameras by 2025, expand the process for revoking the certification of officers found to have engaged in misconduct, and enact many other measures, including creating statewide use-of-force standards and expanding required training.

Baird said he has objections about several requirements mentioned in the bill. These are:

• One major issue, he said, involves what law enforcement can do on behalf of victims. There are several offenses in the Illinois Compiled Statutes that are class B and C misdemeanors for which the police will no longer be able to make a physical arrest, unless the suspect poses an obvious threat to the community or any person.
  "An officer’s discretion to make an arrest is an important tool utilized every day, and I believe the vast majority of situations can be resolved without taking someone to jail," he said. "However, many situations benefit from an officer taking an offender into custody and restoring peace."
• A person can no longer be arrested for resisting or obstruction a peace officer, firefighter, or correctional institution employee (a class A misdemeanor) unless the underlying offense made the person subject to custodial arrest to begin with, he said.
• Mandatory unfunded training will be required by every law enforcement officer within the state.
  "The Sheriff’s Office maintains a strong commitment to training, but poorly conceived and unfunded training mandates will cost local municipalities, villages, cities, and the county (taxpayers) tens of thousands of dollars to complete immediately and in the future," he said.

Despite these, Baird also said the bill does contain some positive items such as more training for police officers, grant opportunities for a drug deflection program, body camera act modifications, and a de-certification process to remove bad police officers.

State Rep. Keith Wheeler (R-Oswego) said the "men and women in law enforcement were thrown under the bus" by the bill, which will make "our communities less safe."

"This bill threatens cuts in funding for public safety budgets; allows officers to be punished or fired based on anonymous and unsubstantiated or unverifiable complaints; lets politicians dictate police training; and allows dangerous offenders to more easily go back on the streets prior to trial," he said. "This legislation was rushed through without input from law enforcement at literally the 11th hour with limited debate. We should have had a serious discussion about police reform with the men and women who actually deal with dangerous criminals on a day-to-day basis. Together we could have come up with better solutions."

Patch editor Jonah Meadows contributed to this reporting.

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