After a year, criminal justice reform in Illinois has taken a toll on police with “overwhelmingly negative” effects, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard.

“These kinds of reforms and this kind of constant police-bashing rhetoric that we hear out of these – I’ll just say it – out of these Marxist folks, it’s having the intended result that they truly want,” Bullard told Fox News in an interview. “They’re wanting to damage the policing profession and they’re having some success at it.”

“Policing leaders need to step up and stand against it,” he warned. “Very loud, very vocal, very strongly.”

“Try as they might, they cannot take away the honor in what we do for a living,” he defiantly proclaimed.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

The Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act took effect on Jan. 1, 2023. It was pushed by radical leftists in the state and the results from that Marxist move have been utterly predictable according to Bullard.

The justice system overhaul granted more leniency to criminals, reducing certain felonies to misdemeanors. It also reduced the legal severity of some misdemeanors such as trespassing. The law nixed cash bail in the state of Illinois as well, putting more offenders back on the street and reducing county revenues used to stop crime.

“You can see things in the law when you look at individual factors of it, that this law was generated out of a mistrust for law enforcement,” Bullard remarked to Fox News. “So any rhetoric that would say it was to benefit law enforcement, I believe is disingenuous.”

The law was also obviously intended to go after police officers for doing their jobs.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

“The law includes reforms that streamline the process to revoke an officer’s license, allowing investigations into anonymous complaints against officers and banning the destruction of police misconduct records,” Fox News noted.

“The SAFE-T Act’s most controversial provision, abolishing cash bail, was delayed due to legal challenges over its constitutionality, but the Illinois Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the reform. It took effect Sept. 18, making Illinois the first state to fully eliminate cash bail,” the outlet continued.

Unless a judge decides that a defendant poses a threat to the public or is a flight risk, they are not required to post bail to get out of lockup in Illinois. According to Bullard, 153 of 280 arrestees who were brought into his jail since Sept. 18 were released without bail. Another 55 of them were let out within a week.

“It was some drug offenses, some violent offenses, and some DUI charges all released without having to post any kind of bond,” the sheriff told Fox News. “You see a significant amount of offenders being placed relatively quickly back out into society.”

Illinois is one of the worst states to live in and it’s because of you and your leftist policies. There is a reason Illinois is constantly in the top 3 for outbound migration.

The Safe-T Act is a colossal joke that allows criminals to go right back out on the street with no… https://t.co/oMH2bcv0N6

— Ghost (@RushBaby1980) December 29, 2023

There has been a 45% reduction in fees collected since the act was put in place according to the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk’s office.

The sheriff called the changes applying to police “convoluted.” It has officers in Illinois feeling “uneasy” while carrying out their jobs, dreading repercussions for everything they do.

“Even in your most secure agency, you’re still going to have officers that are going to be a little bit queasy about it,” Bullard claimed.

“So far, Jefferson County has met every statute deadline in the 764-page law, but with many more changes down the road, the southern county hired a law firm to help with policy procedure review in fiscal year 2024. The cost is a significant line item in the small, rural county’s budget, Bullard said,” Fox News reported.

The SAFE-T Act has made most Illinoisans far less safe… except for criminals. They truly are safer. https://t.co/K0LeqOi4Ru

— Ron Sandack (@RLSandack) December 30, 2023

Local officials retained the law firm “to make sure that we can keep up with all the requirements that not only the SAFE-T Act has proposed, but other Illinois statutes and laws that have not been police friendly over the years,” the sheriff contended.

Bullard called laws such as the SAFE-T Act a “demoralization strategy” used by leftists to get police officers to leave the profession or simply do nothing while on duty. He called it “retired on duty.”

“Make the profession undesirable to where it starts becoming harder and harder, especially for local agencies, to recruit and retain people,” he said.

The Not So SAFE-T Act protects the criminals. That’s the progressive utopia.

— Sickofthisshit (@Sickoft42158988) December 28, 2023

“I can still go make traffic stops. I can still get in foot pursuits. If they run from me, I can still get in a vehicle pursuit. We give our people the ability to do their job,” Bullard stated. “And even though there’s hurdles that this reform has put in the way… many honorable things about the profession are still there. Some of the things we just got to work harder at doing.”

Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau told Fox News in a previous interview, “When I said that this is the most dangerous law I’ve ever seen, I believe that.”

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