Some disappointing news on the criminal justice bill that we had been fighting hard to stop.
After supporters of this dangerous legislation changed the bill number from HB163 to HB3653 to confuse people who had been following the process, they made even more changes in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
Nearly 800 pages of new language was landed on our desks and shortly after, we began voting.
The bill passed in the Senate while most of the world was asleep, less than an hour after its filing.
As you know, this legislation empowers criminals while hurting our law enforcement efforts. It imposes so many costly unfunded mandates on our police departments that it will act as a backdoor “defund the police” effort.
While this legislation has passed both chambers and will be sent to the Governor to sign, our fight isn’t over. Please continue to voice your opposition by contacting the Governor’s office and tell him not to sign this dangerous legislation that will do irreparable harm to public safety across Illinois.
Contact information for Governor Pritzker’s office is available here: https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/gov/contactus/Pages/default.aspx.
I want you to know that I stand with law enforcement and those who support our brave men and women. We may have the lost the battle, but we will continue to fight the war.
Thank you again for your time and your concern.