Sangamon Sun

The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police (ILFOP) and its labor council are urging officers to speak out about legislation that was created to reform police.

The statement said the legislation isn’t actually police reform, it is an attack on law enforcement.

“The so-called ‘police reform’ legislation, Senate Amendment Number Two to House Bill 163, that was just introduced in the Illinois General Assembly, if passed, will mean the end of the law enforcement profession as we know it in Illinois,” the statement read.

The statement was issued by ILFOP President Chris Southwood, ILFOP Labor Council Executive Director Shawn Roselieb, ILFOP Chicago Lodge #7 President John Catanzara and Illinois Troopers Lodge #41 Fraternal Order of Police President Joe Moon.

The statement said if officers did not speak out against the legislation, their careers would be over. 

“Do nothing and your career in law enforcement, as you know it, will come to an end,” the statement said.

The statement said the proposed legislation would completely reform the profession and make it start again from the ground up.

“It is by far the worse thing to happen to our profession in the history of the IL Fraternal Order of Police and the IL Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council,” the statement read. “It will burn our profession to the ground, forcing it to start over from scratch—which may be the very desire of those supporting this legislation.”

The statement said it was not an exaggeration to say that the profession would live and die based on how quickly law enforcement professionals acted to end the legislation.

“Every one of us must enlist the help of our family, our friends, our colleagues, every citizen who supports law enforcement and literally everyone else we can think of and relentlessly contact the members of the General Assembly,” the statement read. “We must let them know, over and over and over again, that this abomination of a bill will not only destroy the profession as we know it but will absolutely and almost immediately have serious, potentially deadly, consequences for the citizens of Illinois.”