DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — Another state’s attorney has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to declare the SAFE-T Act unconstitutional.
Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy filed an injunctive order Tuesday against the SAFE-T Act, saying its process was rushed and did not include input from law enforcement officials.
“In short, the poorly drafted Bill containing ill-conceived directives is an effort to systematically dismantle law enforcement,” she wrote in a release.
Before the law was written, legislators who wrote the bill participated in multiple hearings where law enforcement officials testified.
Lacy joins other state’s attorneys like DuPage County State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow and Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe in suing the state to prevent the SAFE-T Act’s implementation starting Jan. 1.
Governor J.B. Pritzker defended the act at a news conference Thursday, saying the new law would make release impossible for the people accused of the worst crimes.
“The SAFE-T Act is designed to keep murderers and rapists and domestic abusers in jail,” Pritzker said. “Right now they can buy their way out, we want to keep them in jail with a Pre-trial Fairness Act.”
He argues the state’s attorney’s responses is fueled by misinformation on the SAFE-T Act, which was widely spread online.
“No one is getting let out of jail on Jan. 1,” Pritzker said. “That is not what the SAFE-T Act does. There is no such thing as a non-detainable offense that is not in the SAFE-T Act.”
Pritzker does acknowledge the need to make some changes about the SAFE-T Act. Democrats have introduced a bill amending the law earlier this week.