Dupage Policy Journal

DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin is cautioning the General Assembly against letting the Safe-T Act take effect. Berlin claims the law enforcement overhaul will diminish police and prosecutor efficacy.

“Well, the problem is they've really narrowed the class of people that can be detained and you can only detain them under certain circumstances,” Berlin said on Chicago’s Morning Answer on AM 560. “Under the new law, we have to prove by clear and convincing evidence that a defendant poses a real and present threat to the safety of a specific, identifiable person or persons. That's an extremely high burden to prove, especially in a domestic homicide where the victim is dead. Who is that defendant a danger to? Who's the specific identifiable person or persons? That's the problem with this law. It ignores a threat to the community because on every single court date, a judge has to make specific findings that the defendant continues to be a threat to a specific, identifiable person or persons.”

“With Class B and C misdemeanors, the police will not be able to actually arrest the person," Berlin continued. "They have to give them a citation with a notice to appear in court within 21 days unless the person poses an obvious threat to the community or any person. Again, a very high burden to prove. Otherwise, these people have to just be ticketed and released.”

For example, Berlin said police will not be able to remove people from private property unless they are a clear danger.

“Criminal trespass is one of them," Berlin said. "So a person, let's say, refuses to leave a restaurant, but he's not being very disorderly. The police can go there, ask him to leave. If he won't leave, all they can do is write him a ticket. And then the person doesn't have to leave. The police will not be able to physically remove that person unless they can prove that they're an obvious threat to the community,” Berlin said.  

Berlin said unless the SAFE-T Act is repealed before its Jan. 1 effective date, 500 inmates in the DuPage County jail will undergo hearings to determine if they should be held.

“Well, we're going to have to do hearings on more than 500 cases where people are currently in the DuPage County jail,” Berlin said. “We'll have to do hearings on only those that can be detained. And the unfortunate reality is many of these defendants are going to be released. Many defendants who are charged with serious felonies will be released. And if they don't show up in court - right now, it's a felony offense, it's one class lower than what they're charged with, but under the new law, it's a misdemeanor. So you can be a pretrial release for a murder and if you don't show up in court, it's only a misdemeanor offense.”

Berlin also noted that police are being held to a different standard on when the use of deadly force is acceptable.

“They did change the law. And when a police officer can use deadly force under the new law, officers now have to evaluate each situation in light of the totality of the circumstances," Berlin said. "In each case, which includes proximity in time to the use of force, to the commission of a force of a felony, and the reasonable feasibility of safely apprehending the subject at a later time. So in any emergency situation, a split-second decision, an officer has to be thinking, am I able to reasonably apprehend this person at a later date?”

In his highly publicized resignation letter, James Murphy III, a former office manager for Cook County State Attorney Km Foxx, criticized the SAFE-T Act for removing cash bail from criminal cases.

The prosecution has the burden of proof under the SAFE-T Act if they think a person accused of a crime should be kept in jail. Detention is only permitted under the law if it is proven that the defendant "poses a specific, real and present threat to a person or has a high likelihood of willful flight.

“I have been thinking about leaving for a while now," Murphy said in the letter. "Really, the thoughts began back in January of 2021, when the 'Safe-T Act' was passed. Seeing this Administration’s involvement in that process was an eye-opening experience for me. To be clear, I am in support of eliminating cash bail- no person should sit in jail solely because they can’t afford to pay for bail. But I never understood the rush on an issue that was so important. I voiced my concerns at the time. And it was in that process that I began to realize that the Administration’s ‘Mission Vision and Values’ was just a PR stunt, just words on a page. Fairness. Accountability. Integrity. Respect. Collaboration. Those words should mean something. They do to me. And I know that they do to you as well. Yet time after time after time this Administration has shown that they don’t live the meaning of those words. Or they don’t care.”

Several are advocating the General Assembly take another swipe at the legislation.

"This January, if nothing is done, mayhem will ensue across Illinois as alleged perpetrators held in pre-trial confinement for crimes from petty theft all the way up to murder will be let out of jail everywhere," Mike Koolidge, a spokesman for the Political Action Committee People Who Play By the Rules, said. "Any respectable legislator and state's attorneys who doesn't do something about this before then will have blood on their hands, the least of which being the man who signed this catastrophic bill into law, Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker.”

Last year, Berlin addressed a smash-and-grab trend that has been on the rise in Aurora. A coordinated group stole $120,000 in merchandise from the Louis Vuitton store at Oak Brook Mall.

"The robberies have a huge impact on a community," Berlin said at the time. "People are concerned. This is not an imagined fear.”