CONTROVERSIAL new legislation has been put on pause just days before it was supposed to go into effect in Illinois after it was branded "the Purge Law" by critics.
The SAFE-T Act includes a state-wide end to cash bail and a provision that prevents cops from searching for missing offenders until 48 hours after they're in violation.
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The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today was passed in 2022 and was supposed to go into effect on January 1, which would have made Illinois the first state in the country to completely eliminate cash bail.
This means pretrial detainees charged with crimes as serious as second-degree murder, aggravated battery and arson could be released without a cash bond.
The act made headlines when online critics compared it to The Purge movie where all crime becomes legal for one day a year.
Former Illinois State Trooper and proponent of the SAFE-T Act Marie Franklin told KSDK the law would affect over 250,000 people a year who are held in pretrial detention but unable to post bail.
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The law has mostly been rejected by the state's law enforcement community, with 100 of Illinois' 102 county prosecutors opposing it.
It has also been slammed by the families of victims of violent crime, including Joy Dobbs, whose son Dakotah Earley, 23, was nearly killed in May when he was shot during a robbery.
Dobbs told The U.S. Sun the law will "create a criminal's paradise" and "jeopardizes everyone."
While advocates point out that a judge will still have to make the decision in each case on who stays behind bars and who will be released, former Riverside, Illinois Police Chief Thomas Weitzel told The U.S. Sun the law will put lives at risk.
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"We told them this wasn't a good idea," said Wietzel, who retired in May 2021 after nearly four decades in law enforcement.
"I don't want Illinois to be a social experiment," Weitzel said. "And you don't experiment with criminal justice. Lives are risk."
The 800-page legislation also changes the electronic monitoring system for suspects. Suspects with GPS ankle monitors are not considered to be in violation until they're missing for 48 hours, which starts after police confirm they're unaccounted for.
"That can be a week or more before police realize someone is gone. And then the 48 hour clock starts," Weitzel said.
"All three of my sons are police officers, and they've made more arrests for serious crimes to DUIs where the suspect has the electronic bracelet on their ankles," he said.
But supporters insist the law will address the injustice of poor people, often entirely innocent, being forced to remain in jail for months before trial because they cannot afford to post bail, while the wealthy walk free.
Criminal justice professor and former Connecticut lawmaker Michael Lawlor told The U.S. Sun many criminals were already working the system to get around cash bail so removing them would have little difference.
"There are people who are very dangerous, who have very good contacts with bail bondsman who are able to easily obtain their release pretrial," he said.
"And in many of these instances, these people continue to commit violent crimes and murders while out on bail."
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who passed the law, pointed to the injustices of bail when it comes to a poor suspect who allegedly committed a low-level crime, compared to a rich one who can afford bail no matter how bad the crime is.
"We do not want someone in jail because they were arrested for a low-level crime like shoplifting to be sitting in jail for months or maybe even years," said Pritzker.
"At the same time, someone who is a wealthy drug dealer, perhaps accused of murder and arrested, can show up with a suitcase full of money and get out of jail."
Supporters also claim this new law will greatly benefit minority communities that are disproportionately jailed.
Illinois appears to be leading a national trend towards the reduction or removal of cash bails.
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A few cities across the US have implemented various degrees of bail reform, but this law is the most drastic because it's statewide and includes violent crimes like murder and kidnapping.
In New Jersey, former Governor Chris Christie amended the state's constitution to remove cash bail in the majority of cases, while New York passed a sweeping bail reform law in 2019, prohibiting cash bail for all but the most serious crimes.
