A bill was filed to the Illinois General Assembly that may change law enforcement in every community in the state.
Executive Director for the Illinois Sheriff's Association Jim Kaitschuk said House Bill 163 would have a significant impact on law enforcement and would create a threat to the community.
This bill is a tremendous overreach of many things they are trying to get done during a lame-duck session. Kaitschuk highlighted if this bill passes it will cause many innocent people to get hurt.
He said this will affect officers who are serving today and others who considered serving. Below are a few of the bullet points listed in the bill.
Allows for unrestricted and ungoverned disciplinary policies of law enforcement officers
Prohibits departments from taking advantage of cost saving federal surplus programs
Allows officers to be punished or fired based on anonymous and unsubstantiated or unverifiable complaints
Mandates that those unsubstantiated and unverified complaints be kept, to be used against officers, forever, with no destruction and no limits on how they can be utilized to inflict harm on officers
Substantially increases both initial and ongoing education requirements with no money to pay for the increased costs and no assurances that the courses will even be offered
Mandates the use of body cameras by all departments for every officer with no money to pay for the cost of those cameras
Defunds any department that does not comply 100% with the draconian requirements of the legislation
Eliminates funding for law enforcement agencies
Read more about this House Bill here: http://www.chicagofop.org/news/urgent-and-important-police-reform-update-hb-163