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Another criminal justice reform signed into law

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Illinois

On Aug. 14, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 169, which was sponsored by Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago. The new law will help ensure that innocent people have their names cleared of erroneous arrest records.

The law facilitates the deletion of arrest records for people who were arrested based on mistaken identity. The destruction of these records would be required upon request by the proper authority such as the chief of police, county sheriff or state’s attorney.

People who have done nothing wrong and were arrested due to errors by law enforcement should not have arrest records attached to their names and should not have to explain wrongful arrests to potential employers.

Dunkin commented on the bill: “All police districts are not the same. This creates a process for that department to be proactive immediately after they acknowledge they made a simple mistake.”

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 9:22 am

Comments

Sounds logical to me.

Comment by OneMan Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 9:30 am
Would this help de-clutter the pardon logjam? Not fair that people should have to wait years for action if it was a simple mistake in the first place.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 9:40 am
Yep

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 9:47 am
This wasn’t already law?

Comment by Ahoy! Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 9:49 am
A Dunkin-sponsored bill that makes sense. My head is spinning.

Comment by SAP Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 10:17 am
Aohy! - that is always something that boggles my mind. This is such a simple issue that I cannot understand why it was never codified into law years ago.

Comment by Team Sleep Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 10:21 am
Congrats to Dunkin, the rep who retired the Century Club trophy.

Comment by anon Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 10:30 am
One of the bright spots in politics across the country is a growing recognition across fhe political spectrum of the failure and human destruction wrought by the War on Drugs and mass incarceration.

It’s going to be a long road and we’ll have to keep our foot on the gas, but nothing good comes easy.

Comment by Wordslinger Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 10:39 am
“All police districts are not the same. This creates a process for that department to be proactive immediately after they acknowledge they made a simple mistake.”
True, but some police offices do not want to admit they made a mistake. What happens then?

Comment by Mama Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 10:44 am
Why make it upon request? Just automatically make it happen. Most people will probably never know the mechanism exists. This law will just generate money for lawyers who will start advertising “Make your arrest record disappear.”

Comment by A Jack Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 10:52 am
Making it upon request, rather than automatically required, is bizarre.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 11:31 am
Do we now have to legislate the right to forget this type of information on the Google?

Comment by Plutocrat03 Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 11:47 am
What word said. I hope the bi-partisanship continues on this issue.

Comment by Liandro Friday, Aug 21, 15 @ 1:32 pm