In Cook County, a significant reshaping of the criminal justice landscape looms as Sheriff Tom Dart moves to divest his office from running the Electronic Monitoring Program (EM), citing operational concerns and safety risks. The program, which Dart is set to phase out starting April 1, currently oversees 1,530 individuals, 100 of whom are charged with murder or attempted murder before the implementation of the SAFE-T Act, ABC7 Chicago reports.
Problems escalated, Dart argues, following the introduction of the SAFE-T Act, which legally binds the sheriff's office to silence monitors two days weekly, during which defendants can roam untracked "And sure enough, we've had over 200 people charged, mind you, with new crimes, gun offenses, you know, shootings, you name it, and those are just the ones we know of how many other ones we don't know," Dart told ABC7 Chicago. This predicament has led to Dart’s convinced stance that the sheriff’s department can no longer manage the program effectively or assure public safety.
The pushback from Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Tim Evans has been pointed, challenging Dart's decision as a relinquishment of duty, "But I say that the legislature should change that law and make him responsible," Evans maintained in statements obtained by ABC7 Chicago. Opponents of Dart’s plan, like Sharlyn Grace from the Cook County Public Defender's Office, argue against linking individual cases of rearrest to an indictment of the program's overall efficacy.
Should Dart proceed as planned, the Cook County Chief Judge's office, currently operating a GPS tracking initiative for specific domestic violence and curfew-enforced cases, would become the EM program's custodian, "Ensuring the safety of our communities is this office’s highest priority," communicated a spokesperson for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in discussions relayed by WGN-TV. The local Teamsters union is apprehensive about the proposed transition, anticipating diluted efficacy in monitoring and response under court jurisdiction, notwithstanding assurances that the current program funding will follow in the transfer.
