So Illinois in there attempt at Police Reform effective January 1, 2023 will totally change how we will police in Illinois. The Safety Act 2023 will focus on ridding the cash bail process and the list of crimes which this will include is ridiculous! To reduce the number of offenders waiting pre-trial and sentencing appearances Illinois will release these criminals after initial processing with just a court date and send them out the door back to the streets to continue their illegal and lucrative lifestyles! The crimes included in this act include second degree murder, drug induced homicide, kidnapping, aggravated dui, aggravated assault, drug offenses, burglary, robbery, threats to a public official, arson, intimidation, and aggravated fleeing and eluding. It will be the burden of the prosecutor to determine if these criminals qualify for the no cash bail. The decision will be based upon criminal history and whether or not they pose a serious risk to public safety. (Illinois Safety Act 20323, 2022).

This act will change how departments will be allowed to police. Officers in the state of Illinois will adopt policy on how these crimes and criminals will be dealt with to include how the use of force and when it will be implemented to affect an arrest. Other polices are still being written and will not be clarified for several weeks.

The practices and standards that will change will be the negative attitudes which officer will bring to the scene of these incidents. There will be a lack of proactive job performance and the biggest concern will be the mount of police officers who will resign and relocate to other states. ( Me included). This bill has already beat what was left of officer morale throughout the entire state of Illinois!

The issues I can see is the amount of violence in cities such as Chicago will be off the charts as these offenders know there will be minimal consequences for their actions. With no cash bail once they are released with their court date they will more than likely be on the run and the amount of fail to appear warrants will sky rocket which will ultimately increase spending cost for these agencies to extradite the offender back for their court appearances. Our Illinois government is failing us!