STATEMENT CLARIFYING MISPERCEPTIONS AND INACCURACIES

March 5, 2021

As President, 1st Vice President, and Executive Director of ILACP, we are collaboratively issuing this statement to clarify any inaccuracies and misperceptions circulating before and since Governor Pritzker signed HB 3653 into law on February 22, 2021.

We unequivocally affirm that:

  • As an association, and as individuals, we support reform concepts such as police accountability, certification measures, robust training, and the use of body-worn cameras.

  • As an organization we are not opposed to productive reform efforts, but ultimately we could not support HB 3653 because of language that we feel is detrimental to law enforcement, both operationally and professionally. These concerns are well-documented.

  • The bill’s sponsors recognized even before the bill was signed that changes in it would be necessary. Now that the bill is law, our association is working diligently to provide suggested language to improve multiple sections of the bill.
  • In the past two months, no media reported our full statements, opinions, or ideas about the bill. We recognize that it is not their job to do so, but any declarations or implied statements by reporters that any of us supports all elements of HB 3653 are wrong. 
  • The association is on record in support the six pillars of the President’s Task Force Report on 21st Century Policing, issued in 2015. Those pillars, which are a component of our own Ten Shared Principles, form a blueprint for equitable policing practices in Illinois by which we operate.
  • As our executive director wrote on February 8, 2021, the concepts in this bill and the bill itself emerged from festering frustration in the Black community as a result of personal and historical negative experiences with the police in their lives and communities. As an association, we value that perspective and proclaim that addressing it is important to us.
  • These statements and our continuous advocacy for reforms in recent decades clearly identify our support for modernization in policing and in the criminal justice system. ANYONE who has characterized our association or its members as anything to the contrary is sadly mistaken and uninformed.
  • Let this serve as a declaration of our collective commitment to the membership of ILACP that we are one voice in working with legislators to implement the changes necessary in Public Act 101-652 to address the lingering concerns of all entities of law enforcement and to make it the most productive legislation possible for all communities.  

 Statement attested by:

James R. Black
President

Mitchell R. Davis III
1st Vice President

Ed Wojcicki
Executive Director