8 Policy and Legislative Priorities for ILACP

Summer and Fall 2020

Updated August 1, 2020

There has been a lot of national and state-level debate about "police reform" in the post-Minneapolis era. There are bills in the U.S. Congress and the Illinois General Assembly, and ILACP is tracking all of them. Our Board of Officers and Legislative Committee have developed the following priorities and are working on all of them:

  1. No softening of qualified immunity, but examine the NOBLE position on this issue

  2. Develop standardized use of force policy – national consensus and state model. Include duty to intervene and de-escalation.

  3. Accountability by strengthening the decertification process and the hiring and disciplinary processes to make it easier to fire bad cops and prevent them from working elsewhere. Also, support statewide and national police misconduct/decertification databases.
    Make ILETSB the Illinois agency that manages the Illinois database and reports to a national database.

  4. Support greater use of body cameras with legislative changes in Illinois; support national standards on body cameras.

  5. Make it mandatory to participate in FBI National Use of Force Collection Database

  6. Continue to support district-funded School Resource Officers while balancing disciplinary role of schools with benefits of police guidance and protection

  7. Push our Ten Shared Principles as a guide and playbook for all departments

  8. Promote Federal Use of Force Certification (which is still being developed and not rolled out yet in Illinois or nationally) that would make LE agencies eligible for federal funds.

Other positions and priorities 

  1. Oppose ban on no-knock warrants
  2. Consider making accreditation mandatory in next five years, with resources provided to all agencies to accomplish this. Focus on policies. ILACP should create a Basic Accreditation Level in addition to Tier 1 and Tier 2.
  3. Work more intentionally with victims’ rights groups to make sure victims’ concerns are not lost or diminished while reforms are being considered
  4. Support national collection of traffic data but allow Illinois state data to flow into this database; no new reporting to feds
  5. Oppose changes that would require officer to give statement immediately after officer-involved shooting. Respect the science behind two sleep cycles.
  6. Emphasize and educate what is already in Illinois state law
    1. Ban on chokeholds except if life is threatened
    2. External review of force in officer-involved shooting
    3. Training for initial hires – 560 hours

    4. Annual training:

                                                              i.      Law updates

                                                            ii.      Use of force

                                                          iii.      Firearms qualifications

                                                           iv.      Sheriffs and Chiefs – 20 hours

              e. Required training every three years

                                                              i.      Civil rights

                                                            ii.      Constitutional and proper use of law

                                                          iii.      Cultural competency

                                                           iv.      Procedural justice

                                                             v.      Human rights

                                                           vi.      Sexual assault trauma-informed response

                                                         vii.      Intro to mental health awareness

                                                       viii.      Officer wellness

                                                           ix.      Reporting child abuse and neglect

                     f. Required every five years

                                                              i.      Psychology of domestic violence (Domestic Violence Law)