For our next legislative update, we wanted to provide insight on two important legislative updates related to public safety and mental health services in the State of Illinois.
Public Safety
As most of you already know, in January, the Governor signed a criminal justice and public safety reform bill into law. Earlier this summer, we reportedon the status of the trailer bill to the legislation, which clarified and amended many provisions of the Act to provided guidance to law enforcement and local government for compliance with the new law. On June 25, Governor Pritzker signed the trailer bill into law as Public Act 102-0028.
The Act includes numerous provisions on police training, the use of body camera footage, police misrepresentation matters, and restrictions on officer use of force, among other clarifications of the January statute. Of note for local governments are the provisions mandating at least 30 hours of in-service officer training every three years and those specifying the permissibility of police review of body camera footage. Under the Act, officers and supervisors may not redact, label, duplicate, or otherwise alter body camera footage, and the footage must be stored securely for 90 days after recording—if altered or destroyed, the report detailing such alteration or destruction must be kept for one year. Footage will not be destroyed within 90 days if there is a “flagged encounter” captured on the recording. Encounters will be flagged if: