On 6/07/2025, Mt. Carmel Police arrested Lloyd A. Wood, age 50, of Mt. Carmel on a Wabash County Warrant for Unlawful Delivery of Methamphetamine (Class 1 Felony). The warrant was a result of an investigation into the unlawful sale of methamphetamine in the Mt. Carmel area conducted by the Southeastern Illinois Drug Task Force. An MCPD officer located Wood in the 1300 block of W 9th Street, where he was taken into custody. Wood was transported to the Wabash County Jail and issued his warrant. Wood is being held pending a pre-trial release determination by the court. The Southeastern Illinois Drug Task Force is comprised of law enforcement officers from the Mt. Carmel Police Department, Robinson Police Department, Salem Police Department, and the Illinois State Police.
U.S. Attorney, FBI vow strong action after federal building damaged in Carbondale
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Following an incident in Carbondale on Tuesday evening where criminals defaced a federal building, U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Johnson are vowing to protect law and order in southern Illinois.
“There are bright lines separating where speech ends and criminal conduct begins. Those who committed this targeted vandalism to federal property will be pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. “Our system protects good faith expressions of ideas and opinions, but it abhors lawlessness and violence. Any such criminality cannot, and will not, be tolerated.”
In the evening on June 10, individuals gathered outside the entrance of the Senator Paul Simon Federal Building in Carbondale. During the gathering, some members defaced the outside of the building, from which any damage is being assessed at this time.
“The Senator Paul Simon Federal Building’s houses multiple United States federal entities and has been located in the community since 1978. These offices employ dozens of local residents, and the tenants of this building deserve to go to work without fear or intimidation. The FBI Springfield Field Office respects the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights, but we will not tolerate individuals inciting violence or engaging in criminal activity and violating federal law. The individuals who defaced the building last night will be identified and charged, as well as those who aid and abet them,” said Christopher J.S. Johnson, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Springfield Field Office.
If you have any information about this incident, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) and reference “Carbondale Illinois Federal Building.” The operator will take down any information you have and contribute it to the investigation.
Students Explore Healthcare Careers Through Hands-On Emergency Medicine and Primary Care Experience
Olney Central College partners with community healthcare providers to offer immersive learning opportunity
OLNEY, Illinois, June 9, 2025 – Students interested in healthcare careers got an intensive, hands-on look at emergency medicine and primary care during a special educational event at Olney Central College that combined real-world scenarios with expert instruction from local healthcare professionals.
"The day started with an introduction into emergency medicine. We had a local physician, Dr. Watik Maghroudi, come and speak to the students, and then we had the manager of Carle Richland Memorial Hospital come and talk about emergency medicine and emergency response," said Dr. Alani Frederick, DNP, RN, PCCN, CNE, Dean of Health Professions at Olney Central College.
The comprehensive program included emergency triage training and a mass casualty incident simulation where students cared for 19 simulated patients from a bus accident scenario. The cases ranged from simple cuts and bruises to critical situations, providing students with exposure to the full spectrum of emergency medical care.
"The end goal for the students is to be exposed to an incredibly large number of medical specialties and healthcare specialties to determine if they can find something that sparks their interest. These students all signed up knowing they wanted to do something in healthcare," explained Dr. Frederick.
The afternoon portion focused on primary care, featuring nurse practitioner Marcia Street, who practices locally in Olney. Students followed patients through various specialties including bloodwork, X-rays, and physical therapy to understand the comprehensive nature of healthcare delivery.
"We partnered with AHEC (Illinois Area Health Education Centers) and Carle Richland Memorial Hospital to sponsor lunch and bring in providers from our local community to talk to the students about taking care of people in our own community," noted Dr. Frederick.
The event represents an innovative approach to healthcare education, combining academic learning with practical experience and community partnerships to give students authentic exposure to medical careers.
UPDATE: U.S. 41 pavement replacement project continues in Vanderburgh County
VANDERBURGH COUNTY Ind. – The Indiana Department of Transportation announces traffic changes for continued work on U.S. 41 in Vanderburgh County. Traffic changes are a result of ongoing work by INDOT contractor E&B Paving to reconstruct U.S. 41 in Evansville between Diamond Avenue and The Lloyd Expressway. The changes are as follows.
Beginning on or around June 17, crews will re-open the U.S. 41 approach from Virginia Avenue. This approach has been closed due to reconstruction
Beginning on or around June 17, crews will re-open recently completed southbound U.S. 41 lanes. Traffic will shift into the new roadway. However, traffic will remain restricted to two lanes of travel in both directions as work continues. Following the opening, left turns will be allowed from U.S. 41.
Beginning on or around June 17, crews will close the U.S. 41 southbound ramp to State Road 62 (Lloyd Expressway) westbound for reconstruction work. This work is expected to take three weeks to complete, depending on the weather. Motorists are asked to utilize the interchange as a detour to access State Road 62.
Beginning on or around June 17, crews will close the State Road 66 (Lloyd Expressway) westbound on-ramp to U.S. 41 southbound for reconstruction. This work is expected to take two weeks to complete, depending on the weather. The detour for this project is U.S. 41 northbound to Diamond Avenue to U.S. 41 southbound.
INDOT will provide additional information as work progresses. Overall work on U.S. 41 reconstruction is expected to be completed by the beginning of September, weather permitting. Motorists can receive updates and additional information from INDOT Southwest via Facebook and X.
INDOT reminds drivers to slow down, use extra caution, and avoid distractions when traveling in and near work zones. All work is weather-dependent, and schedules are subject to change.
Beard To Be Inducted Into Illinois State Eagles Hall Of Fame
A LONG-TIME MEMBER OF MT. CARMEL EAGLES WILL RECEIVE STATE HONORS THURSDAY AT STATE CONVENTION IN SPRINGFIELD. WSJD’S RODGER BEARD WILL BECOME A MEMBER OF ILLINOIS EAGLES HALL OF FAME. BEARD JOINS THE LATE EDWARD R. SCHMITT, BECOMING THE SECOND MT. CARMEL MEMBER TO BE SO HONORED. AN EAGLES MEMBER SINCE 1988, BEARD IS A SEVEN-TIME PRESIDENT OF AERIE #3066.
Evansville man arrested for driving on suspended license
On June 9, 2025, at approximately 4 p.m. Gibson County Central Dispatch received a report of a minor accident with injuries where one of the vehicles failed to stop and immediately notify law enforcement of the accident. The reporting party gave an accurate description of the vehicle and monitored where the vehicle was until law enforcement arrived in the area. Deputy Eric Powell located the vehicle, a Gold Ford Expedition and conducted a traffic stop on US 41 near County Road 100 North. Upon approaching the vehicle Deputy Powell identified the driver as 42-year-old John Fahey Jr of Evansville. During a roadside investigation Deputy Powell ran Mr. Fahey through the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and discovered that Mr. Fahey was operating his vehicle while his license was suspended on a prior driving while suspended conviction. At the conclusion of the investigation Mr. Fahey was taken into custody and transported to the Gibson County Detention Center where he was charged with Driving While Suspended/Prior.
Deputy Bart Wagner assisted Deputy Powell in this investigation.
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law
Despite victories, major higher education policy bills stall in General Assembly
Funding overhaul, community college baccalaureates not brought up for votes
By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker got some of what he requested from the General Assembly in the area of higher education, but some of his biggest requests fell short.
Pritzker’s wins include a $10 million increase in need-based student financial aid and passage of a direct admission program to make it easier for eligible Illinois high school and community college students to apply to public universities.
But lawmakers did not approve the overall funding increase that Pritzker requested at the start of the session, settling on a 1% bump in their operational budgets instead of the 3% the governor proposed, Pritzker’s office, however, has said there are contingencies to provide an additional 2% in the event of significant cuts in federal funding.
They also did not pass other major higher education policy initiatives, including Pritzker’s plan to allow community colleges to offer four-year bachelor’s degrees in certain high-demand career fields, and a long-sought overhaul in the way Illinois funds its public universities.
“You don’t get everything done in one year,” Pritzker said during a post-session news conference when asked about several of his initiatives that failed to pass this year. “Sometimes they (lawmakers) spend two years, four years, six years, trying to get something big done.”
Community college proposal
In his State of the State address in February, Pritzker called for allowing community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees as a way of expanding access to those programs, especially for older, nontraditional students who may not live close to a four-year university.
“With lower tuition rates and a greater presence across the state — especially in rural areas — community colleges provide the flexibility and affordability students need,” Pritzker told the General Assembly. “This is a consumer-driven, student-centered proposal that will help fill the needs of regional employers in high-need sectors and create a pathway to stable, quality jobs for more Illinoisans.”
In the legislature, however, the proposal ran into stiff opposition from several sources, including universities that said the plan lacked sufficient safeguards to prevent community colleges from offering duplicative programs that would siphon prospective students away from their campuses.
Amid that opposition, House Bill 3717, which was carried by Rep. Tracy Katz-Muhl, D-Northbrook, failed to advance out of a key committee before a mid-session deadline in March. And even after amendments were negotiated that led to universities dropping their opposition and the bill was reassigned to a different committee, it still failed to gain enough traction to advance to the House floor.
That was mainly due to opposition from the Legislative Black Caucus, whose members said it still posed a threat to the three universities in Illinois that serve primarily Black and Latino students — Chicago State University; Governors State University, and Northeastern Illinois University — which are all located in the Chicago metropolitan area alongside multiple community colleges.
“Chicago State is hemorrhaging,” Rep. Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago, said during a May 23 House Executive Committee hearing. “And you all, as an administration, are handing them Band-Aids and they need stitches. And then you come in and you provide a bill that's going to be even worse for them, with 11 community colleges within 25 miles of them. And I'm saying as we sit here that the Black Caucus has an issue with the bill.”
Funding overhaul
Another proposal that failed to advance called for establishing a new formula for funding public universities.
House Bill 1581 and its companion Senate Bill 13, known as the Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act, called for establishing a funding structure like the Evidence-Based Funding formula used for K-12 education.
That formula would use objective standards to determine an adequate level of funding for each university. The bills then called for adding as much as $1.7 billion in new funding for universities over the next 10-15 years, with most of the funding going toward schools furthest away from their adequacy target.
The proposal grew out of a commission formed in 2021 within the Illinois Board of Higher Education. That commission worked for nearly three years to develop a proposal and issued its report and recommendations to the General Assembly in March 2024.
Under the proposed formula, Western Illinois University in Macomb would have earned top priority for new funding because it is currently funded at only 46% of its adequacy target. Northeastern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, at 47% of adequacy, would have been next in line.
But the state’s flagship institution, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, currently at 89% of adequacy, would rank at the bottom of the priority list. For that reason, the U of I System opposed the plan.
“The University of Illinois System is absolutely dedicated to expanding equitable access, enhancing student success and promoting statewide economic growth,” Nick Jones, executive vice president and vice president of academic affairs for the U of I System, told a Senate committee in April. “The proposed legislation penalizes institutions that provide the most support for underrepresented and rural students while failing to ensure long-term access.”
Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Westchester, who sponsored the Senate bill and was a cochair of the study commission, said she was disappointed it did not pass this year, but vowed working for a more equitable funding formula.
“While it is far past time to pass an equitable funding model, I am reminded that many of the comprehensive plans I’ve passed have taken years of research, input and negotiations,” she said in an email statement. “This legislation is no different.”
Robin Steans, president of the education advocacy group Advance Illinois, who also served on the commission, said in a separate statement that she expects lawmakers to continue discussing the bill over the summer. Action could come during the fall veto session or early in the 2026 regular session, she said.
“Eventual adoption of the Adequate & Equitable Funding bill represents a significant change, one that requires new investment by our state in what remains the surest path to greater mobility and opportunity for Illinois families,” she said. “The questions and comments made during legislative committee meetings indicate that Illinois lawmakers get that, and powerful testimony from the state’s university leaders drove home the urgency of this issue.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
U OF I STUDENT UNION: Students walk across the lawn between the Illini Union in the fall of 2024. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
Illinois ‘chicken bill’ aims to boost small poultry farms, expand access to their products
Legislation would allow farmers to sell their poultry at farmers markets, roadside stands and through delivery
By GRACE FRIEDMAN
Medill Illinois News Bureau
news@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD — A bill that would lift long-standing restrictions on small poultry farmers in Illinois, reducing red tape and transforming the way local farmers process and sell their products, is heading to the governor.
Under a measure dubbed the “chicken bill,” farmers who process fewer than 7,500 birds annually would be exempt from state and federal inspections of their poultry operations or from having to send birds to USDA-approved processing facilities — an increase from the previous 5,000-bird threshold. The change, part of an update to the Illinois Meat and Poultry Inspection Act, also allows these farmers to sell their poultry beyond their own farms — including at farmers markets, roadside stands and through delivery — a major shift from earlier restrictions.
"This is important for our small farmers to be able to get their product to the community, and that's what this is all about," said Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason, who co-sponsored the bill. The Illinois House voted 116-0 on Friday, May 30, to approve House Bill 2196, and the Senate passed it unanimously on May 22.
Turner represents a largely rural district spanning 10 counties. "Farmers in my community, especially small farmers, are important to me, personally, but also to our whole district," she said.
State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, a farmer himself, said the legislation provides local agriculture with a much-needed boost.
"We always want to get the freshest product to the consumer. We want them to know where it came from," Meier said. "So what's better than meeting the farmer who's raised those chickens, knowing where they're coming from? They're fresh, and you're getting a good, healthy product."
Initially, the bill faced pushback from some public health groups, which argued for stricter labeling and packaging rules to ensure the safety of poultry products for consumption.
The revised bill includes mandated temperature controls during storage, transportation, shipping and delivery. Processed poultry must be packaged in sealed, leak-proof containers to prevent contamination. Each package must also be clearly labeled with the farm’s name and address, the product name, net weight and a statement indicating that the poultry was processed under exemption and not inspected by state or federal authorities.
"Everything you see in that bill was done by some of the public health coalitions," Michael Desmedt, interim director of public health for DuPage County, said. "I think our voices were heard, and they understood our concerns.’’
Ed Dubrick, a poultry farmer and policy organizer with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for sustainable agriculture, said he went around the state and asked livestock farmers what they needed to help with the processing of their animals.
Dubrick said the current exemption was too limiting because farmers could only sell “on or from the farm.”
"Expecting someone to come to the farm every time they want some chicken just really isn't realistic," he said. "But if we can bring it to a farmers market where the consumers are, that adds an opportunity."
Illinois is one of the few states without more flexible on-farm poultry processing exemptions, Dubrick said.
“In many states — about 40 — you’re allowed to process up to 20,000 birds under similar rules. We’re only asking for 7,500,” he said.
Farmers will benefit, according to Dubrick.
"It gives them the opportunity to drive both their production and their profits on their farms," he said
For consumers, he said, "I think you'll see an increase in the availability of local poultry, and I don't think you'll see any difference in food quality or safety. Farmers are proud of their product. They're not going to put their name, their reputation, their business on the line."
Anna Morrell, co-owner of The Little Farm at Weldon Springs in Clinton, said the bill could make it more viable for her and her husband to scale up their small operation, which began in 2020.
“This basically just opens up another avenue for getting poultry processed with lower overhead and gives us an avenue of sales into farmers markets," Morrell said. "We're currently not operating under the poultry exemption. We take our meat to USDA-inspected facilities, but there are very few processors in Illinois that process poultry."
Morrell said the current law had made it more challenging for poultry farmers in Illinois to sell their products; this bill would decrease the number of miles farmers have to travel to get their poultry processed.
If signed, Legislators and advocates say the bill represents a rare collaboration between producers, public health departments and state lawmakers.
"And let's see if we can't keep a few more farm families on the farm and give kids another chance at a future on the farm,” Meier said.
Grace Friedman is a journalism student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Chickens and ducks roam freely at The Little Farm in Clinton, where sustainable practices support fresh egg and produce production. (Medill Illinois News Bureau photo by Grace Friedman)
Illinois’ $55.2B budget ‘incomplete,’ Civic Federation president says
Democrats monitoring Congress for actions that could force changes to budget
By BEN SZALINSKI
Capitol News Illinois
bszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ latest budget misses the mark in several key areas, according to one independent nonprofit fiscal analyst.
State lawmakers sent Gov. JB Pritzker a $55.2 billion budget on May 31 that raises $1 billion in new revenue and increases spending by more than $2 billion in fiscal year 2026 compared to the current year.
But the head of one of Chicago’s top nonpartisan government research organizations said lawmakers made too many short-term decisions to balance the budget in fiscal year 2026 that could make future fiscal years more challenging.
“It’s an incomplete budget,” Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson told Capitol News Illinois. “It does not add in any meaningful way to discuss any structural issues the state has. It’s a maintenance budget.”
Read more: New taxes on sports bets, nicotine products as Democrats pass $55.2B budget
Ferguson said a key reason for that is at least $271 million in fund sweeps used to balance the general revenue fund. Fund sweeps occur when lawmakers dip into lesser-known and underutilized funds outside the main general fund to use as a source of revenue for the fiscal year. This year’s budget also pauses several transfers to keep certain dollars available in the general fund for use this year.
For example, the budget calls for pausing the final transfer of motor fuel sales tax revenue to the road fund. The move would free up $171 million of general fund spending in FY26, but delays putting that money toward road construction projects.
“It's not balanced on gimmicks,” House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, told Capitol News Illinois for the latest episode of the “Illinois Lawmakers” program. “It's balanced based on revenues and expenditures, and it's based on what we know. We passed a budget based on what we knew at the time, and we weren't going to pass the budget with cuts alone.”
The FY26 budget would also suspend the monthly transfer to the “rainy day” fund for one year, freeing up $45 million for general fund use.
“It’s absolutely a mistake,” Ferguson said, calling that decision “troubling.”
The “rainy day” fund should continue to grow over time, he said, especially “knowing that we are going to need to go to some last-case resorts in all likelihood when we understand the federal impact and when we approach the transit issues as well, and this was not the moment to go to that well.”
The fund is still expected to grow from interest income and cannabis revenue in FY26.
Lawmakers used some of the fund sweeps to give the governor authority over a new $100 million “emergency” fund to plug unforeseen budget shortfalls.
Pritzker argued at a news conference after the budget passed that the state’s “structural” deficit – or the gap between ongoing spending and baseline revenues – has improved since he took office in 2019.
“We're diminishing the one-time expenditures that we have to make,” Pritzker said. “So we've gotten, really, much closer than ever before to balancing that structural deficit.”
Relying on fund sweeps will only make budgeting more challenging if a crisis arrives, Ferguson said.
“Everyone acknowledges that it is all but certain that there are additional things that are going to need to be attended to in the coming months,” Ferguson said.
An eye on Congress
New action from Congress that punches holes in state budgets, coupled with the state’s public transportation fiscal cliff, could be a wake-up call for lawmakers, Ferguson said.
Read more: Legislative leaders discuss next steps for failed transit reform push
The U.S. House has already passed a domestic policy plan that would shift more cost of government programs to states, cut Medicaid funding and phase out clean energy tax credits. The Senate is expected to make changes to the legislation, but President Donald Trump wants to sign the bill into law by July 4.
While many components may not hit Illinois’ budget this year, state lawmakers are watching for any changes that could require them to return to Springfield and adjust the FY26 budget.
“We have told the caucus to stand on the ready,” Welch said. State lawmakers boosted spending in the FY26 budget for safety net hospitals and federally qualified health centers, but the state wouldn’t be able to absorb major federal cuts to Medicaid.
“We got some room in there to be able to respond, but it’s hard to prepare when you don’t know exactly what’s coming down the pipe,” House budget leader Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, said during a news conference Thursday with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, was less worried Congress will cut Medicaid and other key benefits.
“After conversations with the Illinois delegation, I don’t feel that there’s going to be any concerns with cuts that are important in our Medicaid budget,” McCombie told Capitol News Illinois.
Last-minute budgeting
Democrats unveiled a more than 3,300-page spending plan about 24 hours before it passed the General Assembly, while the $1 billion tax plan was filed about five hours before lawmakers took a vote.
Ferguson, the Civic Federation president, criticized the legislative process that gives lawmakers and the public little time to review the budget’s contents.
“It was chaotic, nontransparent – nontransparent even to the legislators that had to vote on it – and not really the way that we want to go about this business, especially at a sensitive time,” he said.
A group of conservative lawmakers also contended the process was illegal in a lawsuit filed this week in Sangamon County. The Illinois Freedom Caucus argues that the budget amendments were not read on three separate days in each chamber of the General Assembly, which they say violates the state constitution.
The constitution states a bill “shall be read by title on three different days in each house,” but does not specify that each amendment to a bill receive the same.
Each of the bills were read on three separate days this spring in both chambers, even though the substantial amendment containing the budget was filed in the final hours. For example, the bill lawmakers used to raise $1 billion of revenue was originally filed to establish an Emmitt Till commemorative day. The bill met the three readings requirement in both chambers before the Emmitt Till Day provision was removed in the final hours of session in favor of the tax plan.
The constitution also states that it’s up to the House speaker and Senate president to “certify that the procedural requirements for passage have been met.”
In applying what’s known as the “enrolled bill doctrine,” the Supreme Court has consistently declined to infringe on the legislature’s authority to certify its own bills, due to separation of powers concerns. It has also consistently upheld broad authority for the General Assembly to gut the original contents of a bill and amend it with a new subject, making the lawsuit a long shot.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
The Illinois Capitol Building is pictured on the final night of the 2025 spring session on May 31, 2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
Under bill, state highway cameras could be used to investigate human trafficking
Images obtained by ISP would not be accessible by FOIA
By JADE AUBREY
Capitol News Illinois
jaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD — A bill passed in this year’s legislative session would rewrite the definition of a “forcible felony” to allow Illinois State Police to use images obtained from automatic license plate readers in cases involving human trafficking and involuntary servitude.
Automatic license plate readers are cameras that capture images of vehicle license plates. After obtaining pictures captured by ALPRs, state police software runs the license plate numbers through other law enforcement databases – including the National Crime Information Center, the Department of Homeland Security, the Illinois Secretary of State and National Amber Alerts. The software then alerts ISP officials when a license plate number matches one in the databases.
Current law allows ISP to use the cameras for the investigation of cases involving vehicular hijacking, aggravated vehicular hijacking, terrorism, motor vehicle theft, or any forcible felony, which includes treason, first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping, aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm.
House Bill 3339, sponsored by Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, would add the offenses of human trafficking and involuntary servitude to the definition of forcible felony in that section of law.
“It’s very focused on specific types of crime,” ISP Director Brendan Kelly said in a committee hearing on the bill in March. “It’s not for speeding, it’s not for traffic enforcement, this is for serious offenses, and we use it in a limited and focused way and in a highly effective way.”
The bill is an initiative of ISP that acts as an expansion to the Tamara Clayton Expressway Camera Act passed in 2020, which granted ISP the funds to purchase and install automatic license plate readers along highways in Cook County. The act was in response to the expressway shooting of Tamara Clayton, a postal worker who was shot and killed on Interstate 57 on her way to work in 2019. ISP was ultimately unable to obtain any images of the shooting, and the investigation on her case is still ongoing.
“This is not just an effective deterrent, it’s also an effective program, in terms of our ability to solve cases,” Kelly said. “In 2023, for every expressway homicide that occurred in Cook County, 100% of those homicide cases were charged. Not solved, not cleared, charged. And every single one of those cases included license plate reader evidence.”
“That type of solve rate is not something you see very often in any category of crime,” Kelly said. “But is a result of this very effective tool.”
After the passage of the Expressway Camera Act, ISP installed approximately 100 ALPRs along I-94 in 2021 and by the end of 2022, 289 ALPRs were installed in the Chicago area.
Lawmakers expanded the program in 2022. In 2023, ISP installed 139 additional ALPRs in Champaign, Cook, Morgan, and St. Clair counties, and in 2024, ALPRs were installed in 19 counties and along with Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.
Read more: Highway camera expansion covering 6,600 miles of road in 22 counties awaits Pritzker’s signature
“Since it was put into place in 2021, we’ve seen a decrease in interstate shootings,” Jones said in the March committee hearing on the bill. “A 31% decrease from 2023 to 2024, a 53% decrease from 2022 to 2024, and an 71% decrease from the initial year that we did this.”
If signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker, the bill also would add cameras in Ogle, Lee and Whiteside counties to those regulated by the Expressway Camera Act. That means cameras in the counties would be subject to existing law’s prohibitions against using them to enforce petty offenses like speeding, and ISP would be allowed to run the licenses plate numbers captured by ALPRs through its software.
The measure also extended the expressway camera program for a second time, to 2028, after it was initially approved on a pilot basis.
Another aspect of the bill requires ISP to delete images obtained from the cameras from ISP databases within 120 days, with exceptions of images used for ongoing investigations or pending criminal trials. It also bars images obtained through the ALPRs from being accessible through the Freedom of Information Act, expanding on the existing expressway camera law.
“It’s also got protections so that someone can’t try to – if someone is in a divorce case and they want to know where their spouse has been all day, that information cannot be FOIA’d, it cannot be released to them, it cannot be subject to that type of activity either,” Kelly said about the bill. “It’s very limited and very focused.”
It also comes after a lawsuit from two Cook County residents in 2024 on the constitutionality of ALPRs. The residents alleged that the use of ALPRs to cross reference information stored in national databases amounted to a warrantless search of drivers.
Read more: State highway shootings decline as critics sue over ‘dragnet surveillance’
On April 2, a U.S. District Judge ruled against the claim, saying that license plate numbers are not private information, and as such, do not fall under the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizures.
HB3339 unanimously passed the House in April and passed the Senate on May 30 with only one no vote, by Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville.
The bill is a part of a broader ISP initiative to crack down on human trafficking, as outlined in Senate Bill 2323, which also awaits approval from the governor before becoming law. That bill aims to better educate and coordinate officials across state agencies on how to identify and provide essential services to victims of human trafficking, with a specific focus on the Department of Children and Family Services.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
A bill passed by lawmakers would add to the crimes that highway camera images could be used to investigate. (Capitol News Illinois file photo)