Police Reform Bill Has 'Problematic' Verbiage: Chief Konopek

PLAINFIELD, IL — As officials in Illinois are divided over the new criminal law and police accountability reforms, Plainfield officials are either is still awaiting clarification from the State Attorney's Office on language that they find problematic, or opposing the decision.

"While I am troubled by the less than transparent process on how this bill was passed, it is now a law and as such the members of the Plainfield Police Department will abide by all the provisions of this law," said Chief John Konopek. "It is our hope that trailer bill legislation will be introduced to clarify and clean up some verbiage in this law, as some wording is problematic. We have had numerous conversations with state legislators on this and in many instances they provide different views on what some contents are."

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.

Konopek said according to the new law, officers are required to issue citations in lieu of a custodial arrest for traffic offenses, Class B and C misdemeanors or petty, business offenses.

"Currently, if we respond to an unwanted subject or a subject trespassing (which is a Class B misdemeanor) we will ask them to leave, order them to leave, cite them if they refuse to leave, and then arrest them if they still refuse to leave," he said. "Under the new law, we will still respond, ask the unwanted/trespassing subject to leave, order them to leave, and cite them if they refuse to leave and that is where our authority ends. So the home/business owner is still left with the problem of the unwanted person on their property."

Despite this, Konopek said the Plainfield Police Department is not opposed to this reform, as there is "truly a need of a de-certification process to identify bad police officers and remove them from the job." He is also in support of the implementation of Body Worn Cameras to protect the citizens and officers during an interaction, as well as providing a more robust training on many topics, especially those related to mental health.

"However, we would have preferred to have a seat at the table during these discussions when these finite details in this bill were worked out in the middle of the night," he said, "as we believe a partnership between the police and the community will provide many more positive results than putting ideas on paper with no input from both sides."

While the police applauded certain requirements of the new bill, some other Will County officials are completely against it. State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) said he is "disappointed" in the governor's decision to sign the bill into law.

"This bill will alter the very foundation of policing in Illinois, yet all 764 pages were voted on in the Illinois House with mere hours to review it," he said. "I repeat my deep concerns about the unintended consequences of HB3653: this legislation will make Illinoisans less safe."

Patch editor Jonah Meadows contributed to this reporting.

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