Metro East Sun

Madison County Board member Erica Harriss, a GOP candidate for Illinois Senate District 56, is decrying the controversial Safe-T Act set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023 due to the unfunded mandates it creates for local law enforcement.  

“Though they have passed some subsequent legislation amending the bill, the reality is that it still makes it harder to apprehend criminals, solve crimes, hold the guilty accountable and give justice to victims and their families,” Harriss told Madison County Record.

“More specifically for downstate communities like ours, it overhauls Illinois' local criminal justice system with unfunded mandates that could force local municipalities to either increase property taxes or defund the police or both.”

Harriss in mid-September Harris penned a letter to the editor in which she expanded on her position on the Safe-T Act calling out the bill for tax hikes that will be needed to pay for it.

“The state sponsored defunding of the police leaves local counties and municipalities with dire and unfair choices on whether to cut their law enforcement budgets and other safety services or, find new revenue to fund the police mandates through, you guessed it, new taxes,” she wrote.

“We are now seeing that play out in real-time in northern Kane County where the county board is considering their first property tax increase in a decade in part to fill a $3 million hole stemming from new SAFE-T Act mandates.”

“In my time on the  Madison County Board I am proud that we have successfully increased funding for law enforcement without increasing taxes, and these new unfunded mandates will undoubtedly make that more difficult in the future.”

“With record inflation, the highest grocery price increases since 1979, and a nearly 15 percent rise in electricity prices from just last year, the SAFE-T Act is just one more bill Metro East families can’t afford.”

Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine and Sheriff John Lakin recently filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the “no-cash bail” section of the Safe-T Act on constitutional grounds.

Lawsuits have also been filed by state's attorneys from Jo Daviess, Ogle, McHenry, Brown, DuPage, Kankakee, Will, Knox, Vermillion, Greene, Scott, Sangamon, Jersey, Moultrie, Douglas and Effingham counties.

They argue the "pretrial fairness" sections of the law are unconstitutional.

The statute should be repealed or modified, according to 100 of the 102 state attorneys.

Eric Rinehart of Lake County and Kim Foxx of Cook County are the only two extreme outliers. Both received campaign funding from an aggressive campaign to install “activist” prosecutors who are more friendly to criminal interests.