By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Law enforcement agencies across the state are calling for Gov. Pritzker to veto a police reform bill that passed during the lame-duck session, which ends cash bail within two years.

House Bill 3653, which passed in the final minutes of the previous General Assembly’s lame-duck session, will make communities less safe, according to Deputy House Minority leader Dan Brady (R-Normal).

Rep. Brady says the bill’s problems are the unanimous complaint policy, new provisions to resisting obstruction of a police officer, and cash bail. And that’s why he’s joining a petition to urge Gov. Pritzker to veto the bill.

“All these things are monumental, and to have such a piece of legislation combined with another piece of legislation that contradicts in some lines what one piece of legislation does versus the other is extremely concerning. This certainly in its present form, not that there’s not work that can be done and reform it, in its present form is nothing that’s going to help us retain good officers and its nothing that’s going to help us recruit good officers.”

With 30 days left to review the bill, Gov. Pritzker has agreed to House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s offer to go through the legislation together.

However, if Gov. Pritzker agrees to sign off on the bill, that could lead to ramifications, according to Illinois State Police Chief Aaron Woodruff.

“There’s a strong likelihood that there will be some ramifications of this (if it’s signed),” Woodruff told WJBC’s Marc Strauss. “What all that will mean, we don’t know, and that’s the problem. They rushed this bill so quickly through, and they failed to consult anybody outside their own circle that the public was left out of having any discussion or say in it as well.”

The governor has not said if he would sign the bill or not.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].