The following statement can be attributed to Khadine Bennett, Director of Advocacy and Intergovernmental Affairs, ACLU of Illinois: 

“Today’s vote in Committee is significant. In response to repeated examples of egregious police misconduct – often captured on videotape for the world to see – Illinois residents are told that these horrific experiences reflect “just a few bad apples” in law enforcement. But the public is often frustrated by the reality that these supposed “bad apples” rarely are held accountable. For too long, special protections like qualified immunity create an almost insurmountable barrier to justice for people whose constitutional rights have been violated by police. HB 1727 changes that and provides the people of this state a chance to hold bad police officers accountable when they violate someone’s constitutional rights. 

In polling conducted late in 2020, nearly 70% of Illinois voters supported this initiative. We thank Representative Tarver for his leadership in moving this bill forward and look forward to a vote on the floor of the House. Now is the time for the General Assembly to take action. We can’t afford to wait.”

A bill that would install a public health approach to drug use in Illinois today cleared a key House Committee in Springfield. Rejecting the failed policies of the “War on Drugs,” House Bill 3447 reduces penalties for small-scale drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor. Testimony before the Committee demonstrated the compelling need for shifting the State’s approach to drug use. The vote in favor of the bill was 12 to 7. 

“Over just three years 20,000 people were convicted of felonies in Illinois for possessing small amounts of drugs and 7,500 were imprisoned,” the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Carol Ammons (Urbana) told the committee.

Representative Ammons was joined at the hearing by a diverse panel of witnesses who argued that the measure would address fundamental problems in our criminal legal system and make communities safer by connecting people who need treatment for substance use disorders with community-based services instead of jail. Experts agree that a public health approach is proven to work better to address the harms associated with drug use.

Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg championed the bill, telling committee members, “People dealing with addiction need their safety net of support reinforced, not taken from them through incarceration.  Unfortunately, this is exactly what stiff criminal penalties associated with lower-level drug possession offenses do. Our communities deserve investment in recovery services and not steep involvement in the criminal justice system when an addiction crisis affects our community members.”

Committee members also were told that Illinois voters agree with a change of approach in our state. In a poll conducted for the ACLU of Illinois last year, voters made clear that they support changes to punishments handed down for those arrested for possessing illegal drugs. A commanding 79% of voters support making possession of small amounts of drugs a misdemeanor and decreasing sentences for all drug offenses. 84% of voters agree that the state should provide mental health and substance use disorder treatment on demand in Illinois.

The bill now moves to consideration by the full House of Representatives. Advocates for the bill said today that they hope to secure passage in both chambers of the legislature by the May 31st session end. 

“New policies around drug sentencing allow us to break the cycle in which punishment and incarceration, rather than treatment and support, are the default responses to substance use disorders,” said Ben Ruddell of the ACLU of Illinois. “This bill builds pathways to community-based treatment for those who need it, and includes expungement and resentencing provisions that will help people with past convictions move on with their lives.”

The polling information released today is drawn from a poll of 600 voters in Illinois conducted by Global Strategy Group from October 27 - November 4. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.0% and was conducted online using a voter file match. Care was taken to ensure the poll represented the registered voter universe. 

The below statement can be attributed to Nusrat Choudhury, legal director at the ACLU of Illinois:

“The Consultant’s public report on stop-and-frisk by Chicago police officers is a critical reminder of the need for vigorous enforcement of the ACLU’s agreement first reached with the City in 2015.

While we have seen the raw numbers of Chicago police stops and frisks fall dramatically since 2015, the proportion of these intrusive police encounters that involve Black Chicagoans has remained far too high. From 2016 to the present, Black people account for 69% of pedestrian stops, despite representing just 30% of the City’s population in 2019. We are also concerned about the skyrocketing number of Chicago traffic stops from less than 90,000 in 2015 to nearly 600,000 in 2019 – with more than 83% of the 2019 traffic stops targeting Black and Latinx motorists. As we have seen in Chicago and around the country, when police stop Black and Brown people – whether in a pedestrian or traffic stop – too often, the result is needless escalation, the use of force, and even death.

We are pleased that the Monitor in charge of the Chicago Police consent decree will serve as the Consultant on this agreement and will closely examine data, policies, and training concerning when and how Chicago police stop and frisk people. We are especially heartened that the Consultant team is committed to engaging community members in this process – particularly people from Black and Brown communities most impacted by police stops, frisks, and searches. This process must move expeditiously.

We warned years ago that pedestrian stops were simply a pretext for Chicago police to search, question, and harass Black and Brown men in our City. The Chicago Police Department’s current system for overseeing pedestrian stops and reporting the reasons for these stops does not ensure that police do not stop and frisk Black and Brown Chicagoans without legal justification or based on race or ethnicity. And, as noted, Chicago’s dramatic, more than six-fold increase in traffic stops that disproportionately impact Black and Latinx people has never been explained.

Such practices must be rooted out and vigorous enforcement of the stop-and-frisk agreement with the engagement of Chicago communities is one way to advance this end.”