ABOVE: Danville Chief of Police Christopher Yates and Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy speak during the Friday, May 20th STEP UP Vermilion County leadership meeting at Danville’s Second Church of Christ.
During Friday morning’s STEPUP Vermilion County leadership group meeting at Danville’s Second Church of Christ; Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jaqueline Lacy and Danville Chief of Police Christopher Yates both expressed concern about safety consequences from a future law.
When the SAFE-T ACT goes into effect, one thing that changes in January of next year is there will be no more cash bail in Illinois. State’s Attorney Lacy says there will still be cases where, like today, no bail would have been allowed and a suspect must stay in custody until trial. But others will go free until trial without having to worry about bail money. As Lacy explains, the qualification list for keeping someone in custody is limited.
AUDIO: It has to be a forcible felony, and it has to be an identifiable person that we can say that “you are a threat to out into the community.” So, for example, an “aggravated discharge of a firearm” where we don’t have a victim but we know who fired the shot to the car; they’re captured on security footage. We can no longer ask for that person to be held.
Lacy says, right now, many of those who do meet bail still commit more crimes upon release. And come January First, there could be much more of that.
AUDIO: Currently right now we have many individuals that post cash bail and continue to repeat; they’re repeat offenders; they continue to pick up other felony cases. And I think that that’s just going to be more of an issue for those people who are out on……not having to post any amount of cash.
Lacy also mentioned while addressing the crowd at the STEPUP meeting that another problem with the SAFE-T ACT is it limits a police department’s ability to enforce trespassing laws. Danville Chief of Police Christopher Yates said afterwards, that will definitely be a challenge.
AUDIO: Criminal tresspass……often that’s the first step prior to a more serious crime. And we often use that to intervene prior to something more serious happening. So we’re just going to have to be more creative, and understand, and have a lot of communication and different techniques; in areas where we can help the public and protect the public.
Lacy says, residents concerned about this can do one thing for sure.
AUDIO: The midterms are June 28th and elections matter. People need to get out and vote.
And after the June 28th primary, the General Election is November 8th.
