SAFE-T Act back in spotlight after killing of Chicago Police officer

SPRINGFIELD — The SAFE-T Act is again generating controversy following the killing of a Chicago Police officer whose alleged shooter critics of the law say was only out of jail because of the state’s pretrial laws.

While Republicans say the law needs to be changed to make it easier to hold a person in custody while they await trail, others say the judge who allowed the suspect’s release had the authority to detain him but made the wrong decision.

Gov. JB Pritzker said the judge should have ordered the detention of Alphanso Talley — a man with a violent criminal history who is charged with shooting and killing Chicago Police Officer John Bartholomew at a hospital on the city’s North Side on April 25.

The law creates a presumption of pretrial release and directs the justice system to order the least restrictive method of ensuring someone attends their trial. But it also lets prosecutors petition judges to detain individuals who they believe are a risk to the public or of fleeing prosecution.

Talley had previously served time in prison and been convicted of crimes such as aggravated armed robbery and battery of a correctional officer.

According to WGN, Talley was granted pretrial release by a Cook County judge over prosecutors’ objections while he faced armed carjacking charges. He was put on electronic monitoring, but he stopped showing up to court in March and his monitor went silent. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he remained out of jail.

“The reality of the SAFE-T Act is stark,” House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “Individuals with extensive criminal histories or active charges are being released and committing crimes, serious crimes in their communities.”

McCombie and Senate Republican Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, are proposing a specific solution in response to Bartholomew’s killing. They want people who are on electronic monitoring pretrial and commit a new crime to automatically have pretrial release revoked until the case is resolved.

Since the law’s early days, its Republican opponents repeatedly called for giving judges full discretion to keep dangerous suspects detained.

Pritzker told reporters in Chicago on Wednesday that judicial decisions have led to many of the high-profile releases of people who’ve gone on to commit violent crime.

“In most of the cases where Republicans have complained about the SAFE-T Act, it’s actually been the bad decision by an elected judge in Illinois, or no hearing at all because the prosecutor didn’t bring it to the judge, and that has been a reason why somebody gets let out,” Pritzker said.

In many instances, proponents have argued, repeat offenders could have been out on bail under the previous system.

State lawmakers passed the SAFE-T Act in January 2021 as part of a series of initiatives led by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus in response to civil unrest and racial justice conversations following the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

On the campaign trail

Pritzker’s Republican opponent this fall, former Sen. Darren Bailey of Clay County, held a news conference at the Statehouse on Thursday to call for the SAFE-T Act’s repeal. However, some of his proposals mirror the existing Pretrial Fairness Act — the portion of the SAFE-T Act that deals with pretrial procedures and is the subject of much of the criticism over the law.

Bailey outlined his six-point proposal in a news conference. It would keep the no-cash bail system and require judges to evaluate a person’s criminal history, compliance with supervision and risk to victims. It would also allow judges to order detention of people who are deemed a public safety threat or flight risk before trial. All of those are components of the current law.

“If a judge believes that someone is more likely than not to be a danger to the community, they stay in jail,” Bailey said.

Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, an architect of the SAFE-T Act, said he hopes other Republicans also come to realize the state is better off without cash bail.

“Certainly, it’s recognition that that the policy is working,” Sims said of Bailey’s proposal. “And the (cash bail) policy was certainly never about safety. It was always about the access to wealth.”

Bailey’s more specific changes to the law would create a presumption of detention for repeat violent offenders, while the current law requires prosectors to prove a person must be detained. He also wants changes to electronic monitoring rules to end free movement requirements.

“It’s basically the honor system. That ends,” Bailey said. “Violent offenders will be supervised by real law enforcement, people with the authority to act when something goes wrong, and if you violate your monitor, even once, you’re back in front of a judge within 48 hours – no loopholes, no excuses, no second chances.”

Pritzker also said he believes people should be “immediately apprehended” if they violate mandatory supervised release terms.

Legislative deliberations

McCombie and Curran say their proposal is common sense.

“This is saying that if you get a get-out-of-free-jail card, and you get a second chance, and you mess that up by committing another felony while on release, you don’t get any more chances,” Curran said.

Despite chatter from some top Democrats earlier this year that lawmakers could consider changes to the SAFE-T Act, nothing is immediately being considered in Springfield.

“If there is something that we need to work through, we certainly can evaluate that to see how that works,” Sims said.

Cook County court records show 83% of people who have been released pretrial have not committed new crimes. Six percent have been charged with new violent crimes while 11% have been charged with new nonviolent crimes.

Sims said the tragedy involving Bartholomew doesn’t mean the law needs to be tossed aside.

“I wish that folks who were the purveyors of fear who want to just trot these issues out – the one-offs – they would take time to delve into the policy and how things are working,” Sims said. “And that’s what you see from folks, from academicians to practitioners, they’re showing that we are making progress.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.