The accused person was on pretrial release with a charge of possessing 300-500 mg of cannabis, an offense that is neither defined as violent” nor “heinous” in the law. There is simply no way that anyone could have predicted this tragedy: nothing in the allegations against him indicated that he would participate in a shooting that would result in an officer’s death.

The Pretrial Fairness Act permits detention of people charged with a number of offenses, including felony child endangerment and murder. After several lengthy court hearings, the trial judge released them from custody concluding that any safety risk they posed would be mitigated by home confinement with electronic monitoring and other conditions. The parents have continued to comply with all of the court’s conditions and have not committed any new offenses.

The 48-hour requirement existed before the Pretrial Fairness Act, because the Illinois State Constitution requires it.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally’s claims about the Pretrial Fairness Act are rife with inaccuracies. For instance, his assertion of a ‘30% increase in crime by individuals on pretrial release’ is misleading. The actual numerical difference is a mere 17 cases, exaggerated through percentages to appear alarming.

This is contradicted by rigorous research from Loyola University showing that failure-to-appear rates have declined slightly under the law, from 13.6% to 12.5%.

Possession of a machine gun is and always has been a detention-eligible offense under the Pretrial Fairness provisions of the SAFE-T Act, and is detainable under both the safety and willful flight bases.

The senators assertions were patently false, which is why the WAND TV reporter eventually removed them from his article. Under the Pretrial Fairness Act, a judge can absolutely detain someone accused of residential burglary or child pornography. The law also made more DUI offenses detention-eligible than before the enactment of the law.

State’s Attorney Villareal suggests that 75% of defendants are released pretrial solely because of the Pretrial Fairness Act. But data suggests otherwise. In the 14th Judicial Circuit, which includes Rock Island, 80% of people facing felony charges were in the community awaiting trial prior to implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act. Under the old money bond system, people accused of aggravated battery of a police officer or aggravated battery of a doctor could not be denied pretrial release.

Soares had long aligned himself with conservative lawmakers and law enforcement unions as he advocated for hyper-carceral policies, but Albany voters saw through Soares’ misinformation and fearmongering. The Albany DA race sends a clear message to politicians and prosecutors: New Yorkers know that bail reform makes our communities safer, and fearmongering around bail reform is a losing political strategy.

But a review of the Consortium’s proposed policy changes clearly demonstrates that what the law enforcement-led organization truly desires is to end bail reform in New York and return to a wealth-based, unfair system where people must buy their own freedom

The Pretrial Fairness Act allowed for detention and the Dekalb County State’s Attorney petitioned for it. After hearing arguments from the defense and prosecution, the judge chose to release Mr.Sweeney and was not "forced" by the law to do so.

Beyond fearmongering and lying about bail reform, the articles and posts prove the point that law enforcement care only about jailing more New Yorkers. NYPD named the wrong judge and wrong DA in its critical posts. Above all, law enforcement’s attacks on the man are cruel and serve to obfuscate NYPD’s own ineptitude and ineffectiveness.