Since the implementation of the SAFE-T Act in Illinois back in September of 2023, Monmouth Police Department Chief Joe Switzer shares how the law has impacted locally and says the number of arrests has not been affected, but fewer are going to jail now:
“A lot of this, you see it in the larger metropolitan areas first and then it trickles down to the smaller or in our case rural area. The number of arrests have not been affected by the act, but the number of people that go to jail for criminal activity, that has been affected. We see repeat offenders, we don’t see it as often or as frequently as some of the bigger metropolitan areas do, but it is definitely impacted who is detained in jail versus who is not detained in jail. More times than not we are going to take somebody to jail for an offense they have committed and they will be given a notice to appear and they will be back out shortly after we take them over there.”
Chief Switzer reports notices to appear have always been issued far a variety of incidents and while most will appear in court, there are always the few that don’t.
