Sangamon Sun

Illinois lawmakers have passed a police reform bill that many policing agencies have staunchly opposed since its inception.

The bill passed the Illinois House with a 60-50 vote and the Senate with a 32-23 vote Wednesday. 

The bill has been strongly opposed by policing agencies who have said it will end policing as we know it and make sweeping changes to the agencies.

“We are not on the right side of history,” State Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) said to The Center Square. “You want to pass a flawed bill that is not supported by labor, it is not supported by the sheriff’s association, it is not supported by the police chiefs. Everybody that we task to keep us safe say this makes you less safe.”

Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle also said the changes would be catastrophic to the law enforcement field.

The Illinois Law Enforcement Coalition also said the bill was pushed through in the middle of the night with very little transparency, nor time for constituents to voice their thoughts.

“In the dark of night, Illinois legislators made Illinois less safe. More than 112,000 citizens so far have signed a petition to oppose the community-endangering law enforcement legislation being rammed through the General Assembly, but how did the Senate respond to those constituent concerns? By introducing a 764-page amendment at 3:51 a.m. and shoving it through in the middle of the night before the people voting on it even had a chance to read it," the group said in a statement. 

State Rep. Justin Slaughter (D-Chicago) helped to craft the bill and said the time was now “to go from protests to progress.”

The bill was backed by the Black Caucus. The changes include making changes to the state’s use-of-force guidelines, making body cameras required for every police department in the state, ending cash bail, and stripping collective bargaining rights that are related to discipline from police unions.