Illinois House Republicans are seeking to repeal last year’s criminal justice and police reform bill known as the SAFE-T Act.
The act included several changes that included ending the cash bail system and addressing police misconduct.
47th District State Representative Deanne Mazzochi of Westmont says that since the passage of the bill, crime has skyrocketed around the state: “We warned you that this would make crime even worse. Welcome to reality. You can’t pass a bill designed to defund, demoralize, and decertify police officers and expect that much good is going to come of that. We can get this right. We can come together to carefully consider the right action we can take that is going to promote second chances for people, but is also going to protect our residents.”
Mazzochi and her GOP colleagues have introduced a resolution that urges the repeal of the SAFE-T Act, and are asking state Democrats to come back to the drawing board. A petition from Illinois voters can be signed at ilhousegop.org/repeal.
Video of the full House GOP press conference about the bill that happened yesterday can be viewed here.
Before the press conference concluded yesterday, Illinois’ legislative Black Caucus, who were chief sponsors of the bill, released a reaction statement: “As usual with the Republican Party, any effort to make the justice system fairer for Black people is called ‘dangerous.’ With this law, we have worked directly with community organizations, legal rights advocates and law enforcement to make our justice system more effective and more just at the same time. That’s why the Illinois State Police and other law enforcement groups continue to work with us on this bill. Many provisions of the SAFE-T Act have not even gone into effect yet, proving that the Republican gambit is all for show. In fact, when fully implemented, experts say the SAFE-T Act will help improve public safety by supporting a more holistic approach for first-responders.”
The statement goes on to say that Democrats are continuing to work with law enforcement, including the Illinois State Police, and community leaders to make further changes and adding follow-up measures to make the state safer.