Metro East Sun

A bill designed to crack down on organized retail crime recently got a no vote from Sen. Steve McClure (R-Jacksonville).

McClure is disappointed with House Bill 1091 and feels that it’s nothing more than rewording existing legislation.

"Our stores in this state – most of which have not recovered from the pandemic – are being targeted in a way that we have not seen before by retail thefts," McClure said from the Senate floor. "And what do you do? You just change the words around and allow them to be charged with the exact same thing. Well, guess what's going to happen? Nothing. I'm very disappointed with this. There are some good things here like I said, and I appreciate the sponsor's hard work on this legislation, but how disappointing is this that we have a lot of new charges that are just re-wording things that are already law. Not good at all. So I'm going to vote no on this. I don't like to vote no on this but I'm going to because it's not going to solve the real problems that we have with retail theft."

House Bill 1091 passed the Senate with 42 yes votes and 10 no votes, and passed the House with 96 yes votes and five no votes. It's been sent to the governor to be signed.

House Bill 1091 amends the state's criminal code and creates the Illinois Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM Consumers) Act.

The bill makes it so that a statewide grand jury may investigate, indict and prosecute violations of organized retail crime.