Local police officials on House Bill 163: ‘It’s going to be devastating to law enforcement’

They were willing to sit down with lawmakers. They still are. Improving police-community relations is a priority, and police are eager to give input.

But a group of sheriffs and police chiefs from La Salle and Bureau counties sat down Tuesday and said they oppose House Bill 163 and its companion legislation. They said the legislation hurtling through Springfield will criminalize being a police officer, expose police and cities to crippling liability and scare off recruits.

“It’s going to be devastating to law enforcement,” Bureau County Sheriff Jim Reed said. “It already is.”

Among the negative effects police fear:

• Eroding police unions: The legislation would allow unions to negotiate wages and benefits but would otherwise strip away numerous protections for police, such as those governing internal investigations.

“We didn’t give up our rights as citizens to become police officers,” La Salle County Sheriff Tom Templeton said.

• Greater liability: The legislation would eliminate what’s called qualified immunity, which would mean increased civil exposure not only for individual officers but for their departments, senior officers and their host cities.

Templeton noted that lawmakers are advancing this by fueling the false belief police officers cannot be held liable for their professional conduct.

“Qualified immunity does not prohibit people from suing the police and [law enforcement] entities for bad acts,” he said. He added later, “The plaintiffs’ attorneys have to look at this as winning the lotto.”

“If qualified immunity goes away, we are uninsurable,” Peru Police Chief Doug Bernabei said. “Counties and cities will not be able to buy insurance for allegations of police misconduct.”

• Anonymous complaints: Lawmakers propose devising a means of adding anonymous complaints to police personnel files, meaning unverified and/or untruthful accusations could tarnish a cop’s record.

• Eliminating cash bond: The bill’s authors want fewer people jailed on lower-level offenses; police warn that people could skip mandatory court appearances without posting bond – a problem that already has surfaced during the pandemic.

• Recruitment and retention: Law enforcement agencies are having trouble recruiting cadets and keeping down turnover. Liability and micromanaging won’t help.

“I think you could see a mass exodus of law enforcement,” Reed said.

Law enforcement groups are stepping up calls to halt the legislation, which they say is being pushed through with unnecessary haste and without regard for the short-term and long-term consequences.

“We urge the Illinois General Assembly to avoid making a sudden, rash decision in the Lame Duck Session and instead work carefully with all stakeholders to truly examine what needs to be done regarding law enforcement in Illinois,” according to a statement from the Illinois Law Enforcement Coalition.

Templeton, Reed and about a dozen police chiefs asked to lend their voices to the cause and to ask local residents to contact their lawmakers and oppose House Bill 163 and its companion legislation.

State Rep. Lance Yednock, D-Ottawa, said he understands the needs and intentions of his fellow lawmakers, including the Black Caucus, and said he understands their sense of urgency. But he said changing law enforcement protocols is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, and he hopes the General Assembly will take a step back and reevaluate some of the initiatives.

“This a big change,” Yednock said, “and it would be better to have more time to negotiate some of these things.”

The legislation also contains some broad-brush overhauls that police don’t necessarily oppose in their entirety but which they want to discuss with lawmakers at greater length. Among these is the use of force.

According to a summary by Capitol News Illinois, law enforcement must identify themselves as peace officers and, before they use force, warn that deadly force will be used. Officers are not allowed to use force on a fleeing suspect unless that person has just harmed or tried to harm another person or is armed and dangerous.

The bill would also amend the acceptable forms of force, banning chokeholds and any restraints on an individual above their shoulders that can potentially limit their ability to breathe, Capitol News Illinois reported.

The chiefs all agreed that force is necessarily a last resort but said the legislation ignores two realities. First, the legislation presupposes that officers have the leisure to negotiate with suspects and gradually exert control; in fact, officers have split seconds to respond. Second, head restraints sometimes are the safest way to avoid injury.

“I was a wrestler for many years,” Oglesby Police Chief Doug Hayse said, “and some of the easiest ways to control somebody without hurting them is by using the head.”

The legislation also calls for police to let fleeing suspects get away, which Hayse dismissed as “silly.” Hayse said body cameras are useful but prohibitively expensive; Oglesby would need $65,000 in start-up costs to launch such a program.

Collectively, the chiefs said the state’s 101 downstate counties are being overregulated and micromanaged to address problems specific to Cook County and Chicago.

“We don’t have the issues they have,” Ottawa Police Chief Brent Roalson said.

Streator Police Chief Kurt Pastirik said lawmakers lost sight of police needing the cooperation of a law-abiding public to avoid tragedy.

“Whatever happened to following the law?” Pastirik said. “The law says that you have to obey a police officer. If you obey a police officer, you have your day in court.”

He added later, “They want to handcuff all police.”

Templeton said the legislation as a whole is a thinly veiled mechanism to defund police.

“If we don’t comply with certain aspects of this bill, then we are going to see police defunding. They may not call it that, but facts are facts: It is police defunding.”