For a third election cycle in a row, Illinois Republicans are attempting to gin up fear through lies about pretrial reforms in an effort to distract from their party’s historic minorities in the General Assembly. While we join those mourning the loss of Officer John Bartholomew, spreading misinformation about the causes of this tragedy will only make it harder for stakeholders to work together to improve public safety.

The reality is that this is one case and one decision, which reporters have already revealed to be based on a variety of unique factors specific to this individual case. The opportunistic attempts to make this case representative of the entire law is simply dishonest. As we have said before, there was absolutely nothing in the law that prohibited the detention of Alphanso Talley while he was awaiting trial. 

Since the Pretrial Fairness Act went into effect, 94% of the more than 150,000 people released pretrial in Cook County have not been charged with new offenses against a person. While the law has been in effect, communities across the state have experienced historical lows in both violent and property crime. 

Illinois Republicans’ choice to continue to ignore these facts makes clear that their calls for changes to the Pretrial Fairness Act are nothing more than an attempt to draw attention away from rising food and gas prices, the war in Iran, ICE’s draconian immigration operations, and the rest of the Trump administration’s dumpster fire.

Republicans have stated that this tragedy never would have happened under the old system, but the reality is that it was probably even more likely when Illinois relied on money bond in the majority of cases. Prior to the Pretrial Fairness Act, Illinois judges were spending an average of two minutes on each bail hearing, after which  the size of someone’s bank account determined whether they would be released or jailed. 

The reality is that Illinois judges now are receiving more information and spending more time on each pretrial release decision. The Pretrial Fairness Act has also forced the courts to focus on the cases which most impact public safety, which is why it has been supported by our state’s leading anti-domestic violence organizations. 

For the last several years, Republicans have claimed that judges do not have enough discretion to detain people under the Pretrial Fairness Act—but now they’ve introduced a bill that would eliminate judicial discretion. The bill filed today by Republican leaders would limit judges’ ability to review the facts and circumstances in individual cases where someone has been rearrested while on pretrial release. The GOP proposal flies in the face of the foundational principles of due process: each person is entitled to an individualized hearing and decision. Mandating detention based only on the low standard of probable cause ignores the importance of reviewing the government’s evidence before one’s liberty is taken away.

We all want safe communities, but Republicans are being dishonest about what is possible under any pretrial system. There is no change to our criminal court system that will prevent all instances of violence and harm. If Republicans were serious about protecting public safety, they would stop opposing gun reform measures and investments in mental health and substance use treatment and focus on increasing support and services for survivors of domestic violence and gun violence.