Southern Illinois News

State Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg) says his worst fears about the SAFE-T Act have come true.

“We’re now a year out from the passage of the excessively flawed SAFE-T Act and crime is up, our friends and neighbors are less safe and our law enforcement officers’ job is harder than it has ever been,” Windhorst said at a Jan. 20 news conference. “Ending cash bail for violent offenders, allowing detained subjects to make unmonitored phone calls, prohibiting arrest for certain criminal offenses and allowing unlimited anonymous complaints against police officers is the wrong path for criminal justice and public safety.”

The bill’s passage has been followed by a record number of officers resigning, with more than half of the state’s 102 counties now having a vacancy in the sheriff's office.

Windhorst is among the Republican lawmakers pointing to House Resolution 598 as the only sensible answer. The measure calls for the total repeal of SAFE-T.

“Before the passage of the SAFE-T Act, we warned them what would happen and it has,” he said. “Crime is rising, police officers are being shot and killed, murders are up across the state. Innocent victims are in even more dangerous positions than they were a year ago. Police departments, large and small, are seeing early retirements and struggling to recruit officers.”

Windhorst said some Democratic lawmakers who once pushed the bill are now looking for a redo.

“I welcome any House Democrat who voted for the original law and now recognizes the error they made to join us,” he said. “Let's make Illinois a safer place to live, work and raise a family once again. Sign on as a sponsor to the repeal the SAFE-T Act.”

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) is also pushing legislation he says is designed to do just that. His SAFE-T Act amendment bill seeks to increase the penalties for criminals who use a gun in an aggravated carjacking. That bill will also require a district attorney and a judge to submit an explanation if they choose to allow a suspect to plead a gun case down to a lesser charge.

“If someone gets arrested, a felon in possession of a gun, or illegal discharge of a gun, or using the gun in commission of a crime, what we’re saying in this bill ... the public has a right to know why,” Caulkins said. “If they plead that out, and say we’re just getting you for aggravated battery and drop the gun charges, the public ought to know why that happened.”

The bill now sits in the Criminal Justice Committee and Caulkins said he’s unsure what could come next.