Kane County Reporter

Ben Bierly worries what will come of Illinois if democrats in Springfield get their way.

“House Bill 163 goes too far and it opens the door in making it too difficult for police officers to do their jobs,” Bierly told the Kane County Reporter. “We have to remember the job officers are asked to carry out. No one else is asked to get personally involved in problems the way they are. They’re virtually putting their careers at risk by walking in on what could be the worse of time for other people every time they answer a call.”

Bierly is hardly alone among GOP leaders in sounding the alarm about the Criminal Justice Reform bill, which, among other things, seeks to enact changes that include prohibiting pre-trial detention and removing all due process protections for officers.

Propped up by the full-throttled support of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, the bill would also expand police reform on use of force, increase crisis training and prohibit chokeholds. The proposed reforms have been a work in progress ever since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last summer.

Finally, the bill would also require the use of body cameras by all officers by the year 2025 and stipulates that special prosecutors be called in for police-involved killings.

“You will cease to see effective law enforcement is this bill is enacted the way it is written because it sets officers up for failure,” Bierly added. “It simply goes too far. No officer deserves to be sent home in a body bag because he couldn’t use a chokehold.”

Bierly argues additional training in hardly the answer.

“Officers already know right from wrong,” he said. “But many of the people they encounter are far from nonviolent and they’re left to react to the situation.”