Republicans are calling for their Democratic counterparts in the Illinois House to join them in efforts to repeal criminal justice reforms, known as the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, commonly known as the SAFE-T Act.

Downstate and suburban Reps. Patrick Windhorst (R-118th), Ryan Spain (R-73rd), and Deanne Mazzochi (R-73rd) joined House GOP Leader Jim Durkin (82nd) at a news conference on Jan. 20 to announce their support for legislation, House Bill 4499, introduced a week ago, to repeal the SAFE-T Act.

Spain called the SAFE-T Act “damaging and dangerous with real consequences for the people of the state of Illinois.”

Democratic proponents of the SAFE-T Act, who in a statement called the effort by super minority Republicans “all for show,” pointed out that many of the substantive changes created by the bill had not yet taken effect.

That includes a measure that would eliminate cash bail in favor of a pre-trial detention method that prioritizes aspects such as the level of danger a suspect poses rather than their ability to post bail. The exact parameters for pre-trial detention will be determined by the courts. That measure takes effect in January 2023.

The original SAFE-T Act also changed use-of-force guidelines for law enforcement, created a new police certification system and expanded detainee rights.

Local Sen. Robert Peters (D-13th) and Rep. Kambium Buckner (D-26th), who lead their respective chambers’ blocs of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus under the joint chair, South Side Rep. Sonya Harper (D-6th), said, "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."

Spain said crime has skyrocketed in Illinois with increases in retail theft, carjacking and murders, citing 800 murders last year in Chicago.

“Illinois has become the wild, wild Midwest,” Durkin said.

Tweaks to the bill, including a measure passed last year diluting some of the use-of-force language in the original bill, aren’t good enough, the Republicans said, and the SAFE-T Act should be repealed entirely. Mazzochi said it would only take a few Democrats to cross over to get it done.

“Repeal is a realistic solution. The original, underlying legislation passed with a bare minimum of 60 votes,” Mazzochi said. “It almost didn’t pass the first time.”

The bill, supported by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, passed on Jan. 13, 2021, one year to the day the bill to repeal it was filed.

The Black Caucus countered the SAFE-T Act made the justice system fairer for non-white people. The statement went on to say they continue to work with law enforcement groups, including by passing two follow-up measures.

“Many provisions of the SAFE-T Act have not even gone into effect yet, proving the Republican gambit is all for show,” Harper, Peters and Buckner said. “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. Instead of coming up with solutions to address crime, Republicans are just trying the same racial scare tactics we see across the country.”

"Today’s press conference is another instance of the Illinois GOP chasing relevancy after years of budget impasses and budget cuts. We trust the public won’t fall for this. We are improving public safety, supporting law enforcement and ending systemic injustice at the same time. We are not going backwards."

Durkin and Windhorst, both former prosecutors, said the bill made the state more dangerous. Durkin said Democrats would have to answer to their constituents for the bill’s passage and Republicans would use public safety as an issue in upcoming elections.

Earlier this month, an amendment passed to clarify issues related to detainee phone calls, pretrial services and moving back effective dates for body cameras and police decertification. The House voted 67-42 to approve the Senate amendment.

Spain said the Safe-T Act will leave half of the county sheriffs in Illinois leaving their posts and has left city and county police departments scrambling to recruit and retain officers after a wave of resignations in the wake of the bill’s passage.

Speaking at an unrelated press conference in Bronzeville, Gov. J.B. Pritzker called public safety "a hugely important issue" but said the Illinois GOP has no solutions compared with his party.

"We’re the ones who have promoted solutions, who have funded solutions. They voted against, for example, the increase in state police that we voted for," he said. "They don’t believe in funding, for example, in funding the hiring of new people to bring down the rape kit backlog, which we did."

"In my opinion, if you want to reduce crime, you’ve got to solve crime. So there’s an awful lot that we are doing that they oppose, and what we’re doing is actually addressing the problem," Pritzker said. "What they’re doing is just throwing campaign invectives."

Pritzker said the violence interruption programs — community-based approaches that treat violence as a public health problem — are working in Illinois and in other states. "They allowed (former Gov.) Bruce Rauner to defund it," he said. "They did not vote for it when we tried to fund it."

"There’s been an increase in crime, there’s no doubt about it. That has to be dealt with, and it’s all over the country. And we know that it came about at the same time that the pandemic came. We have to address it in the context of ‘here’s where we are; what are we going to do to bring down the level of crime?’"

"When you defund, defund, defund the programs that truly help people and then you run into a program where you truly need those programs and they’re not there, who is to blame for that? It’s the people who voted against funding those programs. So that’s what I’m saying," Pritzker said.

He used as an example the chronic underfunding of the Illinois Department of Public Health before a once-in-a-century hit: the current administration had to quickly build up readiness to meet a crisis when it presented itself. He furthermore stressed his support for mental health and substance abuse treatment programs for police officers who, he pointed out, are working up to 20-hour days without support for the work they are doing.