SAFE-T Act Undergoes More Changes Early in the New Year
Last January, the Illinois General Assembly passed the “SAFE-T” Act, a comprehensive criminal justice reform bill, with provisions addressing police training protocol, use-of-force techniques, and other related issues. In June 2021, the General Assembly amended the SAFE-T Act in a trailer bill. Recently, on January 7, 2022, Governor Pritzker signed Public Act 102-0694 into law, which further amends the SAFE-T Act. This second trailer bill (“Trailer Bill 2”) makes important changes to certain provisions of the Act that are scheduled to take effect in 2022.
Specifically, Trailer Bill 2 extends several new training deadlines for local law enforcement agencies from January 1, 2022 to July 1, 2022, which will give local police departments an opportunity to review the legislation with counsel and ensure compliance with the Act’s in-service training requirements. The new law also requires that while a probationary law enforcement officer is being trained, they must be supervised by a Board-certified law enforcement officer at all times.
The SAFE-T Act contains a provision that bans the destruction or alteration of body camera footage within the storage and review periods defined by the Act. Trailer Bill 2 further clarifies that a law enforcement agency may label the footage, provided that the labeling does not alter the actual recording of any incident captured on a body camera.
Trailer
Bill 2 also clarifies that the records contained in the Officer Professional
Conduct Database as required by Section 9.2 of the Illinois Police
Training Act,
are exempt from disclosure under FOIA except as otherwise provided in that Act.
Trailer Bill 2 contains additional important changes related to the detention of arrestees, officer certification review and revocation, and pretrial services.
Post Authored by Erin Monforti & Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink
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