Carbondale Reporter

Rep. Paul Jacobs (R-Pomona) said that while he would support legislation to classify violence against police officers a hate crime, such a measure wouldn’t be necessary had Democratic leaders supported law enforcement.

The Police Protection Act, introduced in the Illinois General Assembly last month and sponsored by State Rep Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines), seeks to designate “officer targeting” a Class 3 felony, according to Chicago’s WGN9.

According to Moylan, there’s no longer respect for police officers.

Republican legislators also seek $100 million for the modernization of police departments statewide, the Washington News Post reported.

“I would support this legislation, but if we had better policies in place and if the Democrat majority were to do a better job supporting our police officers, we would not need legislation like this,” Jacobs told the Carbondale Reporter.

According to FBI statistics, the Washington News Post reported, over 60,000 law enforcement officers were injured in the line of duty nationwide in 2020.

Regarding the ACLU’s claim that studies show enhancing a penalty for a crime doesn't reduce that crime, Jacobs told the Carbondale Reporter that “prosecutors – not laws – are the reasons why criminals act as though they don’t care about the consequences of breaking the law.”

“We need prosecutors to do their job and make sure criminals are punished for committing violent crimes,” the lawmaker told the publication. “It is difficult to understand the impact of enhanced penalties because so many prosecutors these days are not doing the job they were hired to do.”

Jacobs said the police reform measure that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law needs to be repealed.

“Morale at police departments across the state is the lowest it has been in a long time,” he told the Carbondale Reporter. “Bad policies and poor leadership at the state level is contributing to the lack of morale. We need to implement better policies to keep the officers we have and recruit new ones.”