On February 22, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed HB3653 (also known as the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity – Today or SAFE-T Act) into law. The massive criminal justice reform bill sprawls across 764 pages and makes changes to some three dozen existing Illinois laws as well as introduces new ones. It’s been decried as an “anti-police” bill by law enforcement groups, and the president of Chicago’s police officer union called it “nightmare legislation” that was intended as an “attack on law enforcement in this state.” But the Black Caucus-backed measure had input from hundreds of community organizations, researchers, advocates, and law enforcement groups in Illinois over several years. It amounts to the most significant course correction on criminal justice policies and practices that exacerbate racial and economic inequality in the state.
  • The legal standards to justify use of force are tightened; officers are required to consider the “totality of the circumstances” before using force, including not just the behavior of the person they are targeting, but what’s happening around them.
  • Officers also have to identify themselves before using force and warn that they are about to use deadly force.
  • Officers cannot use deadly force against a fleeing person. Deadly force against a person trying to escape can only be used if that person is likely to cause great bodily harm to someone else. Additional requirements to justify use of deadly force (such as shooting) against a fleeing person can be found on page 283 of the act.
  • Officers cannot use deadly force against anyone suspected of committing a property offense unless it’s terrorism or the suspect poses an imminent threat of death to someone.
  • Any above-the-shoulder restraints (like chokeholds) that might cause asphyxiation are banned unless deadly force is justified.
  • Use of pepper spray and other chemical agents without adequate dispersal orders and time to disperse is banned.
  • Officers cannot use force as punishment or retaliation.
  • Rubber bullets and other nonlethal projectiles cannot be fired at anyone’s head, pelvis, or back, and cannot be discharged randomly into a crowd.
  • Officers will now be required to render aid to those they injure and (though the law isn’t very explicit on this point) possibly also injured people they encounter while on duty.
  • Officers will also now have a duty to intervene to prevent a colleague from using unauthorized force and will be protected from retaliation or discipline for such intervention.

Warrants

            The state has created the “Task Force on Constitutional Rights and Remedies” which has until May 1, 2021, to research and generate a report on qualified immunity for law enforcement officers in the state. The state’s qualified immunity standards currently shield officers from lawsuits and financial liability for misconduct on the job.



            A new Illinois Law Enforcement Certification Review Panel will be created to make recommendations on the decertification of officers. Databases to track officer certification status and investigations will be created. Law enforcement agencies will be obligated to check the existing (and now expanded) Officer Professional Conduct Database before hiring an officer.

State police

Retaliation against whistleblowers for reporting improper law enforcement officer conduct is prohibited.