2023 is the year we will see the biggest push to favor criminals protecting them from the local law enforecement:
Illinois' Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, overhauled Illinois' justice system with provisions like limiting when defendants can be deemed flight risks and allowing defendants under electronic monitoring to leave home for 48 hours before they can be charged with escape. It was also supposed to eliminate cash bail, but the state's Supreme Court stayed that portion hours before the law was set to take effect.
The SAFE-T Act also dropped trespassing from a Class A misdemeanor to Class B. As result, police won't be able to arrest non-violent trespassers and can instead only issue them a citation.
The sheriff said from what he can tell of the SAFE-T act, "there's not a drug offense other than one involving a firearm or a high-level drug offense that is detainable."
As a result, he fears that not only will the high volume of these crimes continue, but low-level criminals abusing drugs may also not receive opportunities to get clean if they're released immediately after being arrested.
"It's a snowball effect if the drug issue leads to these deaths and burglaries that we experience," Bacon said. "They are a struggle for rural departments to keep up with."
"Simply booking someone and sending them out before they're even sober, I don't see a great benefit," he told Fox News. "I hope I'm wrong, but it's concerning."
Franklin County Sheriff Kyle Bacon says Illinois law enforcement is committed to protecting law-abiding citizens in Illinois as the SAFE-T act takes effect Jan 1.
www.foxnews.com
