Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HB3174

LRB104 05065 RTM 15093 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB3174

Introduced 2/18/2025, by Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

50 ILCS 705/9.2
55 ILCS 5/3-9005	from Ch. 34, par. 3-9005

Amends the Counties Code. Requires a State's Attorney to notify the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board of any officer found to be uncredible for the presentation of sworn testimony. Amends the Illinois Police Training Act. Requires the Board to record whether or not an officer has been reported by a State's Attorney as being uncredible for the presentation of testimony. Effective immediately.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning local government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Police Training Act is amended by changing Section 9.2 as follows:

(50 ILCS 705/9.2)

Sec. 9.2. Officer professional conduct database; transparency.

(a) All law enforcement agencies and the Illinois State Police shall notify the Board of any final determination of a willful violation of department, agency, or the Illinois State Police policy, official misconduct, or violation of law within 10 days when:

(1) the determination leads to a suspension of at least 10 days;

(2) any infraction that would trigger an official or formal investigation under a law enforcement agency or the Illinois State Police policy;

(3) there is an allegation of misconduct or regarding truthfulness as to a material fact, bias, or integrity; or

(4) the officer resigns or retires during the course of an investigation and the officer has been served notice that the officer is under investigation.

Agencies and the Illinois State Police may report to the Board any conduct they deem appropriate to disseminate to another law enforcement agency regarding a law enforcement officer.

The agency or the Illinois State Police shall report to the Board within 10 days of a final determination and final exhaustion of any administrative appeal, or the law enforcement officer's resignation or retirement, and shall provide information regarding the nature of the violation. This notification shall not necessarily trigger certification review.

A law enforcement agency and the Illinois State Police shall be immune from liability for a disclosure made as described in this subsection, unless the disclosure would constitute intentional misrepresentation or gross negligence.

(b) Within 14 days after receiving notification from a law enforcement agency or the Illinois State Police, the Board must notify the law enforcement officer of the report and the officer's right to provide a statement regarding the reported violation. The law enforcement officer shall have 14 days from receiving notice to provide a written objection contesting information included in the agency's report. The objection must be filed with the Board on a form prescribed by the Board and a copy must be served on the law enforcement agency. The objection shall remain in the database with the reported violation.

(c) The Board shall maintain a database readily available to any chief administrative officer, or the officer's designee, of a law enforcement agency and the Illinois State Police that shall show for each law enforcement officer: (i) dates of certification, decertification, and inactive status; (ii) each sustained instance of departmental misconduct that lead to a suspension at least 10 days or any infraction that would trigger an official or formal investigation under the law enforcement agency policy, any allegation of misconduct regarding truthfulness as to a material fact, bias, or integrity, or any other reported violation, the nature of the violation, the reason for the final decision of discharge or dismissal, and any statement provided by the officer; (iii) date of separation from employment from any local or state law enforcement agency; (iv) the reason for separation from employment, including, but not limited to: whether the separation was based on misconduct or occurred while the law enforcement agency was conducting an investigation of the certified individual for a violation of an employing agency's rules, policy or procedure or other misconduct or improper action.

(1) This database shall also be accessible to the State's Attorney of any county in this State and the Attorney General for the purpose of complying with obligations under Brady v. Maryland (373 U.S. 83) or Giglio v. United States (405 U.S. 150). This database shall also be accessible to the chief administrative officer of any law enforcement agency for the purposes of hiring law enforcement officers. This database shall not be accessible to anyone not listed in this subsection. The Board shall record in the database whether or not an officer has been reported by a State's Attorney as being uncredible for the presentation of testimony.

(2) Before a law enforcement agency may appoint a law enforcement officer or a person seeking a certification as a law enforcement officer in this State, the chief administrative officer or designee must check the Officer Professional Conduct Database, contact each person's previous law enforcement employers, and document the contact. This documentation must be available for review by the Board for a minimum of five years after the law enforcement officer's termination, retirement, resignation or separation with that agency.

(3) The database, documents, materials, or other information in the possession or control of the Board that are obtained by or disclosed to the Board under this subsection shall be confidential by law and privileged, shall not be subject to subpoena, and shall not be subject to discovery or admissible in evidence in any private civil action when sought from the Board. However, the Board is authorized to use such documents, materials, or other information in furtherance of any regulatory or legal action brought as part of the Board's official duties. The Board shall not disclose the database or make such documents, materials, or other information it has obtained or that has been disclosed to it to the public. Neither the Board nor any person who received documents, materials or other information shared under this subsection shall be required to testify in any private civil action concerning the database or any confidential documents, materials, or information subject to this subsection.

(d) The Board shall maintain a searchable database of law enforcement officers accessible to the public that shall include: (i) the law enforcement officer's employing agency; (ii) the date of the officer's initial certification and the officer's current certification status; and (iii) any sustained complaint of misconduct that resulted in decertification and the date thereof; provided, however, that information shall not be included in the database that would allow the public to ascertain the home address of an officer or another person; provided further, that information regarding an officer's or another person's family member shall not be included in the database. The Board shall make the database publicly available on its website.

(e) The Board shall maintain a searchable database of all completed investigations against law enforcement officers related to decertification. The database shall identify each law enforcement officer by a confidential and anonymous number and include: (i) the law enforcement officer's employing agency; (ii) the date of the incident referenced in the complaint; (iii) the location of the incident; (iv) the race and ethnicity of each officer involved in the incident; (v) the age, gender, race and ethnicity of each person involved in the incident, if known; (vi) whether a person in the complaint, including a law enforcement officer, was injured, received emergency medical care, was hospitalized or died as a result of the incident; (vii) the law enforcement agency or other entity assigned to conduct an investigation of the incident; (viii) when the investigation was completed; (ix) whether the complaint was sustained; and (x) the type of misconduct investigated; provided, however, that the Board shall redact or withhold such information as necessary to prevent the disclosure of the identity of an officer. The Board shall make the database publicly available on its website.

(e-1) An investigation is complete when the investigation has either been terminated or the decertification action, including the administrative review process, has been completed, whichever is later.

(e-2) At any time, a law enforcement officer shall have access to the law enforcement officer's own records on file with the Board, as it pertains to the databases in this Section.

(f) Annual report. The Board shall submit an annual report to the Governor, Attorney General, President and Minority Leader of the Senate, and the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives on or before March 1, 2023, and every year thereafter indicating:

(1) the number of complaints received in the preceding calendar year, including but not limited to the race, gender, and type of discretionary decertification complaints received;

(2) the number of investigations initiated in the preceding calendar year since the date of the last report;

(3) the number of investigations concluded in the preceding calendar year;

(4) the number of investigations pending as of the last date of the preceding calendar year;

(5) the number of hearings held in the preceding calendar year; and

(6) the number of officers decertified in the preceding calendar year.

The annual report shall be publicly available on the website of the Board.

(g) Nothing in this Section shall exempt a law enforcement agency from which the Board has obtained data, documents, materials, or other information or that has disclosed data, documents, materials, or other information to the Board from disclosing public records in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.

(h) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the changes made to this Section by this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly and Public Act 101-652 take effect July 1, 2022.

(Source: P.A. 101-652, eff. 1-1-22; 102-694, eff. 1-7-22.)

Section 10. The Counties Code is amended by changing Section 3-9005 as follows:

(55 ILCS 5/3-9005) (from Ch. 34, par. 3-9005)

Sec. 3-9005. Powers and duties of State's Attorney.

(a) The duty of each State's Attorney shall be:

(1) To commence and prosecute all actions, suits, indictments and prosecutions, civil and criminal, in the circuit court for the county, in which the people of the State or county may be concerned.

(2) To prosecute all forfeited bonds and recognizances, and all actions and proceedings for the recovery of debts, revenues, moneys, fines, penalties and forfeitures accruing to the State or the county, or to any school district or road district in the county; also, to prosecute all suits in the county against railroad or transportation companies, which may be prosecuted in the name of the People of the State of Illinois.

(3) To commence and prosecute all actions and proceedings brought by any county officer in the county officer's official capacity.

(4) To defend all actions and proceedings brought against the county, or against any county or State officer, in the county or State officer's official capacity, within the county.

(5) To attend the examination of all persons brought before any judge on habeas corpus, when the prosecution is in the county.

(6) To attend before judges and prosecute charges of felony or misdemeanor, for which the offender is required to be recognized to appear before the circuit court, when in the State's Attorney's power so to do.

(7) To give the State's Attorney's opinion, without fee or reward, to any county officer in the county, upon any question or law relating to any criminal or other matter, in which the people or the county may be concerned.

(8) To assist the Attorney General whenever it may be necessary, and in cases of appeal from the county to the Supreme Court, to which it is the duty of the Attorney General to attend, the State's Attorney shall furnish the Attorney General at least 10 days before such is due to be filed, a manuscript of a proposed statement, brief and argument to be printed and filed on behalf of the people, prepared in accordance with the rules of the Supreme Court. However, if such brief, argument or other document is due to be filed by law or order of court within this 10-day period, then the State's Attorney shall furnish such as soon as may be reasonable.

(9) To pay all moneys received by the State's Attorney in trust, without delay, to the officer who by law is entitled to the custody thereof.

(10) To notify, by first class mail, complaining witnesses of the ultimate disposition of the cases arising from an indictment or an information.

(11) To perform such other and further duties as may, from time to time, be enjoined on the State's Attorney by law.

(12) To appear in all proceedings by collectors of taxes against delinquent taxpayers for judgments to sell real estate, and see that all the necessary preliminary steps have been legally taken to make the judgment legal and binding.

(13) To notify, by first-class mail, the State Superintendent of Education, the applicable regional superintendent of schools, and the superintendent of the employing school district or the chief school administrator of the employing nonpublic school, if any, upon the conviction of any individual known to possess a certificate or license issued pursuant to Article 21 or 21B, respectively, of the School Code of any offense set forth in Section 21B-80 of the School Code or any other felony conviction, providing the name of the certificate holder, the fact of the conviction, and the name and location of the court where the conviction occurred. The certificate holder must also be contemporaneously sent a copy of the notice.

(14) To notify the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board of any officer found to be uncredible for the presentation of sworn testimony.

(b) The State's Attorney of each county shall have authority to appoint one or more special investigators to serve subpoenas and summonses, make return of process, and conduct investigations which assist the State's Attorney in the performance of the State's Attorney duties. In counties of the first and second class, the fees for service of subpoenas and summonses are allowed by this Section and shall be consistent with those set forth in Section 4-5001 of this Act, except when increased by county ordinance as provided for in Section 4-5001. In counties of the third class, the fees for service of subpoenas and summonses are allowed by this Section and shall be consistent with those set forth in Section 4-12001 of this Act. A special investigator shall not carry firearms except with permission of the State's Attorney and only while carrying appropriate identification indicating the special investigator's employment and in the performance of the special investigator's assigned duties.

Subject to the qualifications set forth in this subsection, special investigators shall be peace officers and shall have all the powers possessed by investigators under the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Act.

No special investigator employed by the State's Attorney shall have peace officer status or exercise police powers unless the special investigator successfully completes the basic police training course mandated and approved by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board or such board waives the training requirement by reason of the special investigator's prior law enforcement experience or training or both. Any State's Attorney appointing a special investigator shall consult with all affected local police agencies, to the extent consistent with the public interest, if the special investigator is assigned to areas within that agency's jurisdiction.

Before a person is appointed as a special investigator, the person's fingerprints shall be taken and transmitted to the Department of State Police. The Department shall examine its records and submit to the State's Attorney of the county in which the investigator seeks appointment any conviction information concerning the person on file with the Department. No person shall be appointed as a special investigator if the person has been convicted of a felony or other offense involving moral turpitude. A special investigator shall be paid a salary and be reimbursed for actual expenses incurred in performing the special investigator's assigned duties. The county board shall approve the salary and actual expenses and appropriate the salary and expenses in the manner prescribed by law or ordinance.

(c) The State's Attorney may request and receive from employers, labor unions, telephone companies, and utility companies location information concerning putative fathers and noncustodial parents for the purpose of establishing a child's paternity or establishing, enforcing, or modifying a child support obligation. In this subsection, "location information" means information about (i) the physical whereabouts of a putative father or noncustodial parent, (ii) the putative father or noncustodial parent's employer, or (iii) the salary, wages, and other compensation paid and the health insurance coverage provided to the putative father or noncustodial parent by the employer of the putative father or noncustodial parent or by a labor union of which the putative father or noncustodial parent is a member.

(d) (Blank).

(e) The State's Attorney shall have the authority to enter into a written agreement with the Department of Revenue for pursuit of civil liability under subsection (E) of Section 17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012 against persons who have issued to the Department checks or other orders in violation of the provisions of paragraph (1) of subsection (B) of Section 17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012, with the Department to retain the amount owing upon the dishonored check or order along with the dishonored check fee imposed under the Uniform Penalty and Interest Act, with the balance of damages, fees, and costs collected under subsection (E) of Section 17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012 or under Section 17-1a of that Code to be retained by the State's Attorney. The agreement shall not affect the allocation of fines and costs imposed in any criminal prosecution.

(f) In a county with less than 2,000,000 inhabitants, and only upon receipt of a written request by the superintendent of the county Veterans Assistance Commission for the county in which the State's Attorney is located, the State's Attorney shall have the discretionary authority to render an opinion, without fee or reward, upon any question of law relating to a matter in which the county Veterans Assistance Commission may be concerned. The State's Attorney shall have the discretion to grant or decline such a request.

(Source: P.A. 101-275, eff. 8-9-19; 102-56, eff. 7-9-21.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.