We are saddened to learn of CTA worker Julian Mobley’s death and our hearts go out to his family and friends. It is disappointing, but unsurprising, that Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke views Mr. Mobley’s death as an opportunity to continue her pursuit of regressive policy proposals.

It is important to note that while Burke has repeatedly called to rollback the human rights protections for people subjected to electronic monitoring included in the Pretrial Fairness Act, the person accused in this case, Chevazz Campbell, was not on pretrial electronic monitoring. Burke has consistently called to limit electronic monitoring to people facing non-violent charges, and we’d be remiss not to acknowledge that  Campbell was on electronic monitoring as a condition of probation for non-violent retail theft convictions pursuant to a plea agreement with the prosecution. Although Burke asserted that Campbell’s electronic monitoring violations were “repeatedly ignored because there is a lack of oversight,” this is belied by the court record: the Probation department alerted the court each time there were violations, and when Campbell failed to show up at a scheduled court date, a warrant was promptly issued and sent to law enforcement.

Burke’s press statement is an effort to cast blame for an inexplicable and unpredictable act that has nothing to do with pretrial release policy. In ending her press statement with a reckless and vague call for legislative fixes to “electronic monitoring” writ large, she deliberately obscures the fact that this case has nothing to do with the pretrial policy she has been attacking for the last year. 

Burke has consistently used individual tragedies to push for rollbacks of the electronic monitoring human rights protections included in the Pretrial Fairness Act while ignoring that 94% of the people released since the law took effect have not been charged with any new violent or person crimes while awaiting trial. It is critical to remember that these provisions were put in place to address the human rights crisis that was occurring under the Cook County Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program. Thousands of people, the vast majority of them Black, were denied the ability to contribute to their households, perform life-sustaining tasks, and even access healthcare. The electronic monitoring reforms in the Pretrial Fairness Act are intentionally designed to correct that injustice.

As Burke becomes more desperate to secure changes to pretrial electronic monitoring, she has seemingly become more comfortable spreading misinformation. In addition to trying to confuse the public about why Campbell was on electronic monitoring, she recently spread false information in an op-ed about the reforms included in the Pretrial Fairness Act. Burke claims that people on electronic monitoring go “unmonitored” for multiple periods of time every week. This claim has been repeatedly debunked. Nothing in the Pretrial Fairness Act prevents people from being tracked during essential movement. In fact, people on electronic monitoring in Cook County are currently tracked in real-time using GPS technology. If someone breaks electronic monitoring rules, law enforcement is able to respond immediately, investigate alleged violations, and take people who are committing new offenses into custody. 

There is always more we can do to keep our communities safe but spreading fear and pushing to roll back critical racial justice legislation will only cause further harm.