Today Jesse Sullivan, Republican candidate for governor, launched a new ad campaign showcasing support from sheriffs across the state for his Safe Streets plan.
The 0:30 spot will be supported by a six-figure ad buy in target markets across the state.
Including 14 active Illinois sheriffs, Sullivan’s Safe Streets Leadership Council is the strongest coalition of active law enforcement leaders among a crowded Republican primary field.
“I’ve known Jesse Sullivan since long before he decided to step into public service,” said Menard County Sheriff and Safe Streets Leadership Council co-chair Mark Oller.
“Not only has he always supported law enforcement, but he has also worked with inmates at our county jail, praying with them and trying to help them find a better path. The Safe Streets Leadership Council is an example of his dedication to listening to the people on the front lines of keeping Illinoisans safe. There is no doubt in my mind that he is committed to restoring public safety and justice to the entire state of Illinois.”
Proposed action steps in the Safe Streets plan include:
Filling every officer vacancy across the state, augmenting with National Guard assets and State Police where necessary.
Reversing the elimination of cash bail for violent offenders and relaxing the restraints on pretrial / preventive detention.
Scaling positive models like DuPage County’s Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigations Team (MERIT).
Providing support to local police departments for witness / victim protection programs.
1. Fully staff and support state and local police officers.
• Fill every officer vacancy across the state; augmenting with National Guard assets and state police where necessary.
• Fully staff every Illinois State Police crime labs to prevent large backlogs of DNA testing, rape kit testing, weapons processing, and other evidence.
• Fully utilize National Guard support capabilities, such as helicopters, to reinforce law enforcement in areas where crime is surging.
2. Remove violent criminals from the streets to keep communities safe.
• Swiftly enforce warrants for violent criminals and leverage National Guard assets to track down and incarcerate violent offenders with outstanding warrants.
• End electronic monitoring statewide for violent criminals so they cannot menace their communities.
• Reverse the elimination of cash bail for violent offenders and relax the restraints on pretrial / preventive detention so that criminals cannot terrorize their communities and intimidate witnesses while awaiting trial.
3. Forge multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency partnerships that get results. Criminals do not abide by lines of jurisdiction, so our solutions need to be flexible and adaptive.
• Do what Gov. J.B. Pritzker cannot by working with neighboring states to share data, information, and tactics to target illegal drugs, guns, and gang activity.
• Grow positive models like DuPage County’s Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigations Team (MERIT) system, to allow smaller counties to train, work, and share information with larger ones.
• Work with federal partners to ensure carjackers, cop killers, and gang leaders are charged with the stiffest penalties in federal court, as in initiatives such as Detroit ONE
Protect our Heroes
1. Repeal the anti-police bill and defend qualified immunity for law enforcement.
• Repeal the anti-police “Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity- Today Act.”
• Strongly oppose additional changes to qualified immunity doctrine from the radical left.
• Protect police officers from threats of frivolous civil lawsuits in the course of doing their jobs and safeguard municipal budgets that would otherwise face increased litigation and insurance rates.
• End the allowance of anonymous citizen complaints against officers.
2. Increase penalties for assaulting law enforcement.
• Strengthen minimum sentencing requirements for violent criminals who assault law enforcement.
• Require that individuals who assault police officers or bring weapons into penal institutions serve at least 85 percent of their sentence (before parole eligibility).
• Call for federal action to ensure that killing any state or local law enforcement officer is considered a federal crime.
3. Compensate law enforcement fairly for the risk they assume.
• Introduce fair pay for sheriffs so that sheriff pay is structured to match the State’s Attorney scale (two-thirds paid by state, according to population).
• Join states like Florida, Washington, Arizona and New Jersey by offering temporary signing bonuses to attract new law enforcement officers from out of state.
• Create retention incentives to help retain law enforcement officers who are approaching retirement eligibility.
Restore Accountability
1. Take ownership and lead in the fight against crime.
• Incentivize collaboration and reward high performance across government.
• Create a new position of Anti-Violence Director, reporting directly to the governor, to oversee all efforts to reduce criminality of those in state systems (e.g. DOC, DHS, DCFS, DJJ, DHFS).
• Strengthen collaboration between sheriffs, police chiefs, and prosecutors, with fact-finding and showcase sessions led by the governor.
• Create performance-based incentives for prisons based on recidivism rates, and offer other prisons the opportunity to learn from these successes and implement their models.
2. Invest in witness protection to help convict criminals.
• Make it safe for people who “see something” to “say something” by enacting mandatory sentencing penalties for the intimidation and the threatening of witnesses.
• Provide financial support in the form of grants and housing vouchers to local police departments that establish comprehensive witness and victim protection programs.
3. Refocus on reducing recidivism.
• Reprioritize budgets to ensure adequate resources to allow qualified prisoners to take classes and access training while in prison.
• Double the Illinois Tax Credit for Hiring Ex-Offenders to a credit amount equal to 10% of qualified wages paid or up to $1,200 per hire, and establish a statewide hiring network for employers and qualified prisoners in advance of release.
• Strengthen relationships between Illinois Parole Agents and local law enforcement to prevent backsliding, including placing geographical restrictions on parolees to prevent them from falling back into their prior lifestyle.
• Increase penalties for violent ex- offenders who are rearrested while on parole.
