Southern Illinois News

Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) is focusing his legislative efforts on public safety.

The role is natural for Windhorst who served as Massac County State’s Attorney from 2004 to 2018.

“We have seen the job of law enforcement officers become more dangerous and harder to do,” Windhorst said at a press conference. “Criminals are acting more emboldened than ever before, and through a prior bail reform effort, repeat offenders are already being let out of jail with little to no cash bail. And the provisions of the Safe-T Act relating to pretrial fairness have not even taken effect yet. Our citizens deserve to live in safe communities and neighborhoods where they can live, work, play and raise their families without living in fear of violent criminals who are back out on the street just a few hours after their last offense.”

Windhorst was speaking on behalf of a united GOP plan to address structural deficits in Illinois. The implications of the plans are varied. The implications of the plans are varied. "The economic agenda includes establishing worker protections while using the state’s resources and Midwest location to make the state attractive to job creators,” Troy E. Taylor wrote for Shaw Local. “Helping families would be achieved by making Illinois attractive as a place to move to.” He also noted, “The literacy agenda says the state must address learning loss, improve learning literacy and restore students so they are competitive in the modern workplace.” Taylor added that “The policing agenda aims to make neighborhoods safe, protect law-abiding citizens and respect law enforcement.”

The Safe-T Act, which was deemed unconstitutional by a lower court and in part due to the cashless bail portion of the criminal justice overhaul, will be examined by the Illinois Supreme Court. That law was opposed by 100 of 102 state’s attorneys in Illinois as it provided cashless bail for serious crimes.

For most businesses, public safety and the economic climate are correlated. Citadel Securities claims that concerns about security played a significant role in the decision to relocate from Chicago to Miami. “The firms are having difficulty recruiting top talent from across the world to Chicago given the rising and senseless violence in the city,” said Zia Ahmed, a Citadel spokesman, told The New York Times. “Talent wants to live in cities where they feel safe.” Other firms to leave include Boeing and Caterpillar.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski called out Chicago over its crime problem in comments to the Economic Club of Chicago. He noted McDonald’s employees in Chicago are afraid to ride mass transit. “Everywhere I go, I’m confronted by the same question: ‘What’s going on in Chicago?’” Kempczinski said, New York Post reported. Kempczinski, a Chicago resident, said the company sees the crime problem worsening daily. “We see every single day in our restaurants what’s happening at society at large,” said “It’s not going to be something that McDonald’s can solve on its own. We need to be able to do it with the public sector as well.”