The House Republican Truth in Public Safety (TIPS) Working Group introduced a series of measures designed to balance the rights of the accused while ensuring the safety of the public.
Members of the Working Group include Rep. Patrick Windhorst, House Republican Floor Leader and Chairperson of the TIPS Working Group as well as Representatives Dan Ugaste, Dennis Tipsword, John Cabello, Amy Grant and David Friess.
The group explained that the measures in the form of legislation focus on three main areas identified by the TIPS Working Group after months-long discussions with stakeholders, including crime victim advocates and law enforcement professionals. Those areas include protecting crime victims, retaining and recruiting law enforcement officers, and ensuring pre-trial fairness applies to everyone, including victims and the public.
Here is a breakout of the public safety legislation proposed by the TIPS Working Group:
Protecting Victims of Crime
- HB 3357: Creates the offense of domestic assault.
- HB 3356: Adds a victim being 60 or older to the offense of aggravated domestic battery.
- HB 1387: Aggravated domestic battery by strangulation is a Class X offense
- HB 3352: Requires DNA collection at arrest instead of indictment or preliminary hearing for serious felonies including felony domestic battery.
- HB 1390: Sex offenders convicted of a felony sex offense are not eligible for probation.
- HB 1388: Creation of habitual misdemeanant – for those people who have 3 or more pending charges for misdemeanor domestic battery, battery, violation of an order of protection, or criminal damage to property when the property belongs to a family or household member.
- HB 3329: Makes it a Class 1 or Class X felony for a hate crime committed with a firearm or if the victim is under 18 years of age.
- HB 3209: Protect Our Victims Act – deletes a provision that allows a defendant to compel a victim to testify at a detention hearing.
The Real Pre-Trial Fairness Act
- HB 4052: Reinstate cash bail as recommended by the IL SC commission report. Hybrid system that has a presumption of release but allows for cash bail or detention.
Recruitment & Retention of Law Enforcement Officers
- HB 4046: Removes the ability to file anonymous complaints against officers. Add automatic expungement of the misconduct records where the officer has been found not to have committed any wrongdoing or the complaint was found to be frivolous. Deletes provision that an officer has no property right in their certification, thereby ensuring the officer is afforded due process.
- HB 4047: Requires ILETSB to create a waiver process for out-of-state law enforcement officers who want to work in Illinois. In use of force, adds “back” as a place where an officer can discharge kinetic impact projectiles or other non-lethal or less-lethal projectiles in a manner that targets the back.
- HB 4048: Creates a loan repayment program for officers who are working in under-staffed areas.
- HB 4050: In body camera provisions, exempts undercover officers from the requirement of wearing body cameras, except they must wear body cameras when conducting interviews. Deletes prohibition on review of videos prior to writing reports. Adds the taking or attempting to take a body camera from an officer to obstruction of the justice offense.
- HB 1542: Appropriates $80,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Law Enforcement Training Standards Board for deposit into the Law Enforcement Camera Grant Fund.
- HB 3354: Provides that, in matters a sheriff deems essential to preventing or assisting with disasters or events of civil disorder, the sheriff may authorize plain clothes to be worn by auxiliary deputies.
- HB 3358: Requires each member of the General Assembly annually complete a ride-along and a simulation training program.
- HB 3353: Increases the percentage of moneys that are transferred from the Cannabis Regulation Fund to the Local Government Distributive Fund to 15%. Provides that moneys allocated to counties under those provisions shall be directed to a fund under the control of the Sheriff.
- HB 1389: Adds the taking or attempting to take a body camera from an officer to obstruction of the justice offense.
- HB 3217: Back the Badge Program – Creates within the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board a Recruitment Division. To assist local law enforcement agencies establish recruitment plans.
Additional Public Safety Measures
- HB 4049: Removes day-for-day credit on EM. Reinstate provisions that make it mandatory instead of permissive for consecutive sentencing.
- HB 4051: Clarifies the process for when a person is arrested on an out-of-county warrant.
- HB 4053: 3 phone calls provision – adds protections for victims to the right to communicate and remove presumptions of inadmissibility and allows for it to be used in the totality of circumstances determination for voluntariness. Adds to the provision for release by citation that allows an officer to verify the identity of the accused.
- HB 3360: Adds to registerable offenses, home invasion if a sex offense was committed during the commission of the home invasion.
- HB 3359: Prohibits auto expungement for attempt to commit a disqualified offense, such as a sex offense, or Class 2 felony or higher.