PEORIA COUNTY, Ill. – Peoria County’s top cop is urging the governor to make changes to the state’s cashless bail law.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Sheriff Chris Watkins outlined concerns with the SAFE-T Act, and urged Governor J.B. Pritzker to “stand by his word” on making changes.
Pritzker stated in November that he was open to changes to the law, in the wake of a woman set on fire on a CTA Blue Line train.
Watkins says the law has not been all bad. He says there has been a decrease in violent crimes, such as homicides and shootings. But Watkins notes that they have seen increases in everything else.
“Before, when we had cash bail, if we’d seen a repeat retail theft offender, that bond gets high where they have to stay in jail longer,” Watkins said. “Now it’s almost impossible to hold a retail theft.”
Watkins adds that domestic battery arrests have gone up significantly, as well as failure to appear cases. He says the county has had to hire a full-time deputy to focus on picking up criminals on warrants throughout the state.
Watkins details three points that he would like to see changed with the law. The first is expanding the list of detainable offenses. Another is restoring bail eligibility for certain offenses, which he says can stop repeat offenders. The third is reinstatement of daily credit towards bail.
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