Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy was given a chance to air her opinions regarding the new police-reform legislation during a virtual forum on Monday night with other state’s attorneys from around the state, hosted by the Center for Illinois Politics.
Lacy was joined by Cook County’s Kim Foxx, DuPage County’s Robert Berlin, Lake County’s Eric Rinehart and Loyola Chicago Professor David Olson to discuss House Bill 3653, which was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker last week.
The county’s top prosecutor told the panel that the new law faced opposition from almost every law enforcement agency in the state. She says even the people who work most closely with crime victims were opposed to the new law, which she has spoken out against repeatedly saying it will harm crime victims since cash bail is being eliminated and replaced with pre-trial release criteria.
Audio Player“The people who work hardest for our victims are the victim advocates that work in the state’s attorney’s offices across the state of Illinois everyday, and those people don’t agree with this bill,” she says.
But Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who has championed the new legislation, pointed out that ending the bail system would end disparities in law enforcement. She used the example of former Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke, who posted bond and was released before his trial in the killing of LaQuan McDonald in 2014.
Audio Player“There is no justification for a system that allows people charged with murder to be able to pay their way out while people with non-violent offenses sit (in jail),” she explained.
State Senator Elgie Sims, who sponsored the new bill, also pushed back against criticism of the swift approval process, saying it was done that way as some members had disagreements and the bill needed to be called, but he says several hearings were held last year before it was introduced.