Illinois drivers will pay an extra $5 fee on traffic tickets . . .
Illinois Gets Police Body Cams
You may not like it but with the recent death of Samuel Debose by University of Cincinnati police office Ray Tensing it seems very import hat that police officers where body cams. The money has to come from somewhere and so Illinois drivers will pay an extra $5 fee on traffic tickets to help equip police officers with body cameras under a new law Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Wednesday as the state tries to address recent controversies over police use of force.
Interestingly enough the legislators who passed the law have lauded it as the most comprehensive body camera law in the country. The law includes statewide standards for use of the cameras, and expands police training to address topics like use of force and requires an independent investigation of all officer-involved deaths. Further it bans the use of chokeholds and creates a database of officers who have been fired or resigned due to misconduct.
The measure comes well over due comes on the tail of a series of deaths of unarmed Black men caused by police officers. which have generated momentum behind a nationwide push for recording officer encounters with the public.
Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, a Peoria Democrat who sponsored the bill said “Having these body cameras is going to completely open up an eye to the general public as it relates to what police actually deal with on a day-to-day basis. There may be occurrences where there was malfeasance, there may be occurrences where there weren’t. Now, there won’t be a question.”
It has been something that police departments all ver the country have been considering for some time. The slow down in implementing the use of body cameras was due to the expense and the lack of uniform standards. These concerns left departments with legal questions about how and when they should be used.
The new law does not make it mandatory that police departments to use the cameras, but those that do so will have to follow state rules, including a requirement that officers keep their cameras on when conducting law enforcement activities. Officers will be allowed to turn the camera off when talking to a confidential informant, or at the request of a victim or witness.
Further, recordings generally will not be subject to the state’s open records law, unless they contain potential evidence in a use-of-force incident, the discharge of a weapon or a death.
Attorneys of American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, were involved in the negotiations for the new law. Their spokesperson praised the body camera rules as a balance between transparency and oversight of law enforcement, and the protection of personal privacy.
“Most of all, we’re not going to have a different standard here than we have in Champaign, than we do in Peoria, than we do in Chicago,” ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka said.
The line item for the body cameras is an added cost to a budget that’s already in trouble so the solution to cover the cost as well as money for new training will come from a $5 extra fee on criminal and traffic offenses that result in a guilty plea or conviction. The fee won’t apply to parking, registration or pedestrian offenses. Legislative staff did not know how much money the fee would raise. Most provisions of the bill, including the new fee, take effect Jan. 1.
The standards for body camera use that meet minimum guidelines in the bill and will use a competitive grant process to distribute the body camera and training money to police departments will be drawn up by The Law Enforcement Training Standards Board. A similar system is currently used to dole out grant money for dashboard cameras.
Already the Chicago Police Department has been testing body cameras on its own with a trial program. CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said city officials played a role in crafting the new legislation and the department plans to apply for state grant money to buy more body and car cameras and necessary technology to expand its program. The department also has a federal grant application pending with the Department of Justice.
The fact that it will allow chiefs of police to search the work history of potential hires and learn if they have been dismissed or resigned during a misconduct investigation was praised by Rep. John Anthony, a Plainfield Republican and former police officer who co-sponsored the bill.
“That will prevent rogue officers from jumping from one department to another to avoid disciplinary action,” Anthony said.
Keeping it real, Sen. Kwame Raoul, Chicago Democrat, cautioned that the bill is ail not end violent encounters between police and the communities that serve but it will serve to remind them that they should be on their best behavior. It equips departments with tools to better train officers and respond to incidents.
“You’re never going to pass a law that’s will prevent an event from happening,” Raoul said. “What you can do is provide tools for law enforcement to better train their officers.”
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