House Republican Leader Tony McCombie and Senate Republican Leader John Curran have introduced identical legislation in the House and Senate which would help prevent violent criminals from continuing to commit violent offenses while on pre-trial release.
The proposal comes in the aftermath of the latest high-profile failure of the SAFE-T Act, a shooting in a Chicago hospital which caused the death of a Chicago police officer and the critical injury of another. It would change the law to require that anyone who is arrested on a felony charge while already on pre-trial release would have to be detained until the charges are resolved. The current law allows violent offenders to be released over and over again.
Sadly, the murder of the Chicago officer was not the first time an offender on pre-trial release committed a new violent crime. Not long ago a different offender allegedly set a woman on fire on a Chicago train, while another attempted to kill a man by pushing him in front of an approaching train.
In this latest incident, a seven-time convicted felon was out of jail on electronic monitoring when he allegedly shot and killed a Chicago police officer and wounded his partner. The accused gunman was wanted on three warrants and was on parole in two separate cases.
The two Republican leaders in the General Assembly commented that the law should not prioritize process over protection, and that loopholes must be closed and policies which fall short must be fixed. Preventable harm is unacceptable, and public safety must take precedence.
In all, House Republicans have filed more than 40 bills to reform the SAFE-T Act.
