North Cook News

Matt Podgorski, the Republican candidate to represent the 9th District in the Cook County Board of Commissioners, recently posted on his Facebook campaign page a segment of a live-streamed forum on the SAFE-T Act hosted by the Daily Herald.

In the video, his opponent,  Maggie Trevor (D) said on efforts to repeal the SAFE-T Act, "I personally want to see what judges' interpretations are of this before we act to repeal it."

"Crime has been going up," Podgorski replies. "This [SAFE-T Act] hasn't even gone into effect yet. Wait till it does. We are already doing a very poor job at determining who is released on electronic monitoring and who isn't. The folks who can speak - law enforcement - are almost universally speaking up against this."

According to the Capitol News, supporters of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, including the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, point to the legislation as a step toward making the justice system more equitable for minorities. Republicans have called the SAFE-T Act a “de facto defund the police bill" because of the additional regulations it places on police officers.

One hundred of Illinois' 102 state's attorneys have said they oppose the SAFE-T Act, CBN News reported.

One provision of the SAFE-T Act that took effect in January of this year allows criminal defendants who are awaiting trial on home confinement to move freely, without electronic monitoring, two days a week, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The defendants are supposed to use that time to look for employment, attend school, undergo treatment for a drug addiction or mental illness, or grocery shop. However, in the first three months of 2022, around two dozen people were arrested in Cook County during their "essential movement" days. 

Democrat Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has called for an end to the "essential movement" provision, stating, “At a bare minimum, they should say, ‘If you’re charged with a violent offense, and you’re given home monitoring, you don’t get to wander around free for two days a week.'" 

Dart had spoken out about problems with the electronic monitoring program in January, saying approximately 100 people people facing murder charges were out on electronic monitoring, including a man who killed a 7-year-old at a McDonald's last year, CBS Chicago reported. Approximately 2,600 total defendants were out on electronic monitoring at that time. "Home monitoring is not a program for people charged with violent offenses," Dart said. "Seventy-five to 80 percent of my people on home monitoring are charged with a violent offense." Dart noted that Cook County's electronic monitoring program is the largest in the country.

Podgorski is the Republican candidate seeking to represent the 9th District in Cook County's Board of Commissioners. He will face Democrat Maggie Trevor in November's general election.