SE Illinois News

Republican state House candidate Paul Jacobs is desperately hoping to see the police reform movement evolve into something more strategic.

“Most of the police officers retired and active that I have spoken with have said that if we do anything with the police, additional training, yearly training, would be the most advantageous,"  Jacobs, who is running in the 115th District, told the SE Illinois News. “The police in the state of Illinois I feel are probably more trained, better trained than many other states. If there are places that could be cut, that could be looked into.”

The movement to eliminate police departments across the country appears to be growing by the day in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, sparking protests and violence across the country. Minneapolis City Council members were among the first to broach the possibility of permanently doing away with their city's Police Department, and the idea quickly gained the support of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and the leaders of the Chicago Public Schools.

Jacobs, a Carbondale resident, said he isn’t automatically opposed to the idea of steering funding to other areas of operations if it truly stands to help the communities.

“We can look at those and see if there are places that we could transfer monies to more community involvement without causing less police presence in most of Illinois,” he said. “One of the things that we don’t want is to jeopardize the safety of Illinois by cutting police forces unnecessarily.”

Finally, Jacobs said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s idea of requiring all officers to be licensed by the state strikes him as counter-productive and perhaps even disingenuous.

“I think that requiring a license is absolutely redundant and another method for the state to charge for that license as another tax,” he said. “Again, training would be more advantageous than licensing additionally over and above the required academy time and tests.”