2021/06/21 - Mayor's Column: Police Legislation and OTHS Congrats

“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
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Here in O’Fallon, we take a great deal of pride in our Police Department.  As you may know, our department is only one of about thirty Police Departments state-wide that is fully certified. So, we have been carefully watching the piece of Legislation known as Police Reform.  This legislation was passed by the State Legislators and has many serious issues within it. Here are just a few points that I thought you should be aware of:

Under this legislation, all police agencies will now have to use body cameras. Now less than 10% of 877 agencies in Illinois have them.  Here in St. Clair County, O’Fallon is ONLY one of two police departments that has both body cameras and dash cams in Police cars.  This includes all of the City Police Departments and the Sheriff’s Department.

In addition to this, it calls for the elimination of cash bail and stricter rules on what police can do and on the use of force. 

These new requirements for equipment and types of training will come at a cost to departments because at this time they are “unfunded mandates”. This is going to be a major expense items for departments. The State Police estimate that this will cost about $4.4 million for the equipment and about an additional million dollars a year for them to maintain the program.

On a different note, I want to take a moment to congratulate the OTHS woman’s soccer team for their State Championship and OTHS men’s baseball team on their third-place finish at the state championships. Congratulations to the excellent athletes on both teams!

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!