JULY, 2023 – AN INTERESTING NOTE ON LAW AND ORDER – JUST AN FYI ! 

Retired Riverside, Illinois Police Chief Tom Weitzel is the former police chief of Riverside, a suburban village in Cook County located about 12 miles from Chicago.   He sounded the alarm that residents and law enforcement will be left more vulnerable to crime due to the new Cash Bail law that is to take effect on September 18, 2023.   He argued activists and politicians supporting the measure “overdramatized” the reasoning for it. 

“They came up with this theory that … the court system, especially in Cook County, was unfair,” retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel told Fox News Digital in a phone interview following the state Supreme Court’s ruling. “There were several different tiers of justice and if you were Black or Hispanic … that somehow you were receiving a different level of justice, especially when it came to the bond court. 

The elimination of cash bail, which is part of the 2021 criminal justice reform bill, the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, was set to take effect in Illinois on Jan. 1, but was met with fierce legal pushback from dozens of sheriffs and prosecutors in the state who said the law was unconstitutional, diminished public safety and put law enforcement at risk. A Kankakee County judge ruled in December that the law was unconstitutional, but that ruling was overturned by the state Supreme Court last week. 

“Misdemeanor case defendants were never held in custody. That’s a complete lie. Some of the low level felonies in Illinois, the class four felonies, drug possession … they were rarely held in custody. Most of them are put on electronic monitoring or very low bond,” Weitzel said.

He added that in Cook County jail on a given day, most of the suspects behind bars are being held on violent crimes such as carjackings, armed robberies, sexual assaults and homicides. “The city of Chicago probably gets enough personnel to comply with whatever the courts put in. But you’re going see a lot of dissatisfaction in the job, and you’re going to see police officers say, ‘why even bother,’” Weitzel said.

The majority of Illinois residents live in Cook County, which is home to roughly 5 million people and encompasses the city of Chicago. It is where such policies originated, according to Weitzel. Now, rural and more suburban areas will have to follow the rules of Cook County policies, he said. Once the law takes effect, “chaos” will likely break out, especially with suburban departments.  

“There are some good things – the police keep body cameras are good, and no police chief has argued about that. There’s some good training legislation in there … The only thing that’s bad and this is this bond provision,” he said.

Once the law takes effect, “chaos” will likely break out, especially with suburban departments, he said.

sources:  Aug 1, 2023 – https://original.newsbreak.com/@natalie-frank-ph-d-561113/3108587118327-illinois-ending-cash-bail-backdoor-defund-movement-sparks-fear-of-police-exodus;  https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/9/29/23373585/safe-t-act-police-chief-bail-reform-electronic-monitoring-illinois-tom-weitzel-op-ed; (above) https://www.foxnews.com/us/illinois-cash-bail-elimination-built-overdramatization-perpetuatedcity-leaders-former-police-chief – July 25, 2023;