Metro East Sun

Former Republican House candidate Mike Babcock doesn’t see the point in the redundancy.

“Police officers in Illinois already go through a tremendous amount of training that you would think equates to any level of licensing,” Babcock told the Metro East Sun of calls by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who are insisting officers across the state be licensed. “Training by the academy meets that standard in every way. I think anything beyond that should have to be something coming down from the federal government.”

Babcock said he can’t imagine anything other than politics motivating Pritzker and Lightfoot to take the stance they have.

“I can’t say anything for sure, but I know that there’s a tremendous amount of chaos in Chicago that no one seems to have a handle on," he said. “You would think trying to solve all the upheaval would be something we would be dealing with first, before anything else.”

Babcock has previously blasted defund the police talk as not being in the best interest of anyone.

“Disbanding police departments is not going to work for anybody,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think they’re trying to use it as a ploy against President (Donald) Trump, trying to draw him to some reason for rejecting their proposals so they can then say he doesn’t care about the people protesting.”

Amid all the chaos, Babcock said he thinks both sides clearly want many of the same things.

“No one wants to get hurt, but when you call on 911 everyone wants a response,” he said. “There has to be a balance and right now I don’t think a lot of people think there is.”