Chicago City Wire

Thomas Weitzel, former Riverside Police Chief, said that the shift from defunding police to passing restrictive laws has weakened law enforcement authority. He made this statement during an interview on the Prairie State Wire Podcast.

"I consider Illinois to be one of the most anti-police legislative states in America," said Weitzel. "The call to defund the police came out of the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If anyone thinks that defunding the police has died down, that's not what’s happened. It’s turned into gutting the police."

According to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, police reform in Illinois accelerated after the 2020 protests, culminating in the SAFE-T Act of 2021. This legislation requires body cameras for all officers, bans chokeholds, and creates new procedures for police accountability and training. The sweeping legislation has been both praised and criticized as lawmakers and law enforcement agencies work to balance oversight with public safety priorities.

A 2023 report from the Duke Center for Science and Justice indicates that Illinois has increased police budgets to cover costs related to reform mandates such as body cameras and training since 2020. The state has also enacted measures like House Bill 3653 to strengthen misconduct reporting and decertification. These legislative actions have shifted some funding toward reform compliance rather than traditional enforcement.

Comparative data from Axios shows that Illinois’ violent crime rates have remained relatively stable statewide after the SAFE-T Act. However, major cities like Chicago have lagged in implementing reform benchmarks, achieving only about 7% of consent decree requirements, and still struggle with both violent crime and police response challenges. The results highlight ongoing difficulties balancing reform with effective policing.

Patch reports that Thomas Weitzel is the retired Chief of Police in Riverside, Illinois. He served 13 years as chief and spent 37 years in law enforcement. Weitzel is known for his commentary on police reform, concealed carry, and officer wellness. He has advocated for legislative change and served as an ambassador for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

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FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT

Brian Hyde: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prairie State Wire Podcast. I'm Brian Hyde, and today I'm joined by Tom Wetzel, I should say a retired police chief, Tom Wetzel. Tom, it's great to have you on the program. For those who are meeting you for the first time, you've had a rather, uh, lengthy and, and I think accomplished law enforcement background.

Tell us a little bit about your path that, that you walked to get to this point. 

Thomas Weitzel: Thank you for having me. First off, I'm honored to be, to be on the program and yes, I, I was in law enforcement for 37 years. Most of that time I did in suburban Riverside, just outside Chicago, and I did, I. 13 years as police chief.

So when I retired in May of 2021, I retired as the chief after 13 years at, in that position. But 37 years total. And I come from a police background. All, all my current kids, all the adults, they're all police officers here in this suburban Chicago area. [00:01:00] 

Brian Hyde: So with that background, you would probably have a pretty good sense of, of what works versus what doesn't in terms of law enforcement.

Talk to me about some of the legislation right now in the state of Illinois that that takes aim at policing and not in a good way. I. 

Thomas Weitzel: Several pieces of legislation that are aiming to reduce police authority, power, and then there's legislation that they won't even address. And then of course there's the Safety Act, which has been a piece of legislation that I've been a critic of from the start.

So I'll just start with what's happening. I consider Illinois to be one of the most anti-police legislative states in America. Meaning that, you know, to defund the police. Came out of the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and if anyone thinks that that's died, that defund, the police has died, it's not what's happened.

It's turned into gutting the police. So what they're doing is trying to take away our authority and our ability to do the job through [00:02:00] legislation. There has been legislation in Springfield pending legislation on reducing traffic stops in Illinois, telling officers what they can and cannot enact a traffic stop for.

Or how they can issue tickets, who they should issue tickets to. There's legislation on mandates that are being put forward for policing with no funding attached to it, zero funding. And then there's a lot of new training that's been put out as part of the Safety Act with also $0 attached to that. So there's, there's just a lot of anti-police legislation that's being either passed in Springfield or certainly being proposed right now.

Brian Hyde: Can you break down some of the specifics of the Safety Act? I'll admit I'm not familiar with it, but in particular, I know you're, you're taking a lot of focus on this act and, and warning about it. 

Thomas Weitzel: It's, it's commonly referred to as the Safety Act. It's the Pretrial Court Act, which doesn't, it eliminates bond court in [00:03:00] Illinois.

That's one of the main functions. I mean, I'd like to say that it was over 700 page document that was passed literally in the middle of the night at like. 5:00 AM without any real police input. And then they did trailer bills after that to try to please the police because that politically they wanted to get it passed.

And then when they did that, there were two trailer bills that came along. To kind of address law enforcement's issue, which really didn't address our issues at all, but it's a, it's a piece of legislation that gives mandated training, mandated equipment, and then no bond court. And the, some of the more notable mandated equipment is body cameras.

Every single law enforcement agency in Illinois has to have body cameras by three year mark of the Safety Act. No funding came with that. And then there, the safety ACT's biggest part was getting rid of Bon Court and now they call First Appearance court. And that's only if you make it there. So the real crux of that legislation is that many [00:04:00] felonies don't even get to first appearance court.

They're released right from the police station with what's called a notice to appear. And those, those include burglaries. Felony thefts, aggravated battery to a police officer, which is a felony on myself, an individual batterers or injures a police officer. It's not a mandatory hold in custody, so unless the officer is hospitalized and admitted, imagine that so you can injure an officer.

If he's treated by paramedics or if he's treated at an emergency room, but then released from the emergency room and not admitted to the hospital, the offender walks up, probably is home before the officer's released from the hospital, and that's part of the safety Act. 

Brian Hyde: Wow. It, it sounds like there the, the Illinois is struggling with holding people accountable for, for dangerous behavior.

Now we saw this in New York, the Daniel Penny incident, you know, where he intervened for someone who was outta control on the subway and ended up himself [00:05:00] being charged California. You know, raises the amount of goods that can be stolen before it would be considered a felony. And now they have, you know, outta control theft.

I, is this happening on, on a large scale, I mean, nationally, are you seeing these same kind of struggles where police are being defunded, devalued, in some cases demonized by media or politicians? Um, I'm just curious what, what your take would be on that. 

Thomas Weitzel: For sure there's a lot of, a lot of national resentment towards police.

Some, most of it is unwarranted. The me there are certain media organizations that they just make it their mission to find something that they can go after the police. And if you've noticed a lot of these, uh, negative, highly publicized police stories or exposes, they do have a lot of allegations and there there's no real facts to them.

They, they just put stuff out there, put stuff together, and just. You know, see what's gonna stick, so to say, and it, you know, that that ruins our reputation. It makes it very hard to recruit and retain officers. [00:06:00] Illinois, for example, since the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota has had over 600 police officers lead the state of Illinois to go to other states that are considered law enforcement friendly.

And the two top states that police officers are leaving for are Florida and Texas. So those states are very, have very pro-police politicians, governors, they have incentives for officers to come there to do your job. They have signing bonuses, so the Illinois is losing some of the best just because the state is, wants to be this social experiment.

I, this whole safety act, I think they wanted. Illinois to lead the way in What I would characterize my version, my statement is it's a social experiment they wanna try out and it's, and law enforcement and enforcement is not something to try out. It's not something where we wanna try to make Illinois this incubator that everybody else should look at towards the Safety Act that I think the Safety Act has no safety involved in it.

None [00:07:00] at all. I'm not foolish enough to think that the Illinois politicians will eliminate this, like somehow abandon it, but certainly there's support growing that it needs to be amended. There needs to be some, some improvements for law enforcement put back into that bill. 

Brian Hyde: I know it sounds conspiratorial, but I'm very curious who, who are the, the moneyed interests or, or whose money is backing?

This, this safety act and, and for, for that matter is, is it some of the same groups that we see at play? And I'm talking, you know, the George Soros affiliated groups that have brought in prosecutors and into some of these cities like New York or Los Angeles that seem to really give that free pass to, to violent suspects.

People caught rioting are, are bailed out and set free almost immediately. 

Thomas Weitzel: For sure George. So he supported both financially and just supported in general. Kim Fox, who used to be the Cook County state's attorney, she no longer is, [00:08:00] she decided not to run, but her policies just devastated law enforcement. I wrote a a, a column for a local newspaper, and I called her police Officer's Worst Enemy because she passed legislation.

There was anti-police and she's the state's attorney, let's remember that. But what she also did is put policies and practices into her office that would not allow the police to do their job and made roadblocks for us to be able to prosecute and bring cases to her. And that in turn led to this sense of lawlessness here in Cook County and in Illinois.

And when you start getting. Running gun battles on the street and you start getting police officers being shot at and stabbed and injured with no real accountability. You know, the, the, the changes, you know, the, the atmosphere changes and the criminals believe that there is no accountability. And in many instances, at least I'll [00:09:00] speak for Cook County, there was not accountability.

Brian Hyde: Wow. You know, you mentioned nearly four decades that you've been in law enforcement. I'm sure you've seen a number of things change in the way that law enforcement is, is conducted over that time. But I, I'd be curious about the shift in attitudes, whether it's from the public or whether it's from politicians that, that you've seen take place over that time.

I wouldn't even know how to categorize it, but you have been on the other side of that fence to where does the public see police differently than it did in 1984 when your career was beginning. 

Thomas Weitzel: No doubt and a lot of that is media generated. A lot of that is that they paint all law enforcement with the same brush and everyone knows that's not true.

You know, policing is local police. You know, how they police when I was chief in Riverside is different than how they. Police in Chicago, you know, the, the standards are different and people think that we, everything should be one standardized, that's not right. You, you should tailor your policing for the citizens, the residents in the community you serve.

So to [00:10:00] try to paint law enforcement with this big, broad bush that they're terrible, that everybody who saw the incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota and saw that it was wrong and, and you know, for the record. I, I had probably 150 of my colleagues police chiefs when I was still active. Not one of them supported that this, this was this.

Not one of them said it was the right thing to do, but somehow this got out that every agency acts like that and every agency trains their officers like that, which was ridiculous, but it got. It got feet and it just kept going and going and going. And one of my real disappointments back then was national police leadership, like national leaders, large police organizations, fraternal organizations, labor organizations, they didn't come out strong, you know, they were afraid to come out strong against this narrative that was being put out because quite frankly, they were afraid to either lose their jobs.

They would be called racist or they would be called some, they would be called, some type of [00:11:00] of moniker would be put on them that would either cost them their career or they would just be villainized the rest of their career. So a lot of these really high profile police leaders, they didn't come out strong enough and say, Hey, this isn't happening.

This isn't true. This is what really happening. 

Brian Hyde: So where is a battle like this won? It seems like at some point you've got to be able to get the public on the same page and, and working with their, their police. How do you go about that? 

Thomas Weitzel: You know, I would, I would traditionally say we have to get out, you know, all of our good work and stuff, but I've been a proponent late lately of police departments doing their own.

News organ, you know, I relying on traditional media is not gonna do it anymore because quite frankly, they hate the police. There's very few, very few. So I'm really encouraging agencies to put out their own news releases, put out their own YouTube channels, put, put out their, you know, put that you have to be in control of the narrative going [00:12:00] out.

The days of you having a public information officer and that information officer's dealing with the Chicago media, for example, or the river tho those days while they're still there. I would encourage departments. Not to do that, I, you have to take matters into your own hands and you have to put out what's factual.

You know, here, I'll give you an example. Many of the police agents, news agencies in Illinois don't wanna print mugshots anymore. And they stated reason for that is because many of the mugshots that are going out are, are fall on individuals that are non-white. And that's what they said. Those are their words, not mine.

And. My response to that was police agencies. Media used to always ask us for mug mugshots of individuals, and now you don't want them. And now you say, if we do put them out there, we're somehow falling on the side of it's, it's disproportionate against one group or another. It's just who was arrested.

It's just the facts. It's just what's coming. It doesn't to me. I [00:13:00] would put out the information. This is the individual arrested. This is the case. We have the. You know the chips fall where they fall. There's no screening. But it's amazing that news organizations who want open and transparent policing and open and transparent government, they really don't want that.

I can tell your, your listeners, they don't want open and transparent policing. They don't want it. 

Brian Hyde: I'll tell you what, I have been becoming more and more aware of what, what appears to be a war against reality. What you have just described is another facet of that war that I hadn't even realized. But there are some things you are not allowed to acknowledge and I could, I could see where this, this could make policing difficult.

You mentioned in one of the op-eds, I think this was in the Chicago Sun Times about the amount of paperwork. That officers find themselves doing, you know, just on a, on a day-to-day basis versus, you know, time when they could be out patrolling or out actually in the, the neighborhoods. How have you seen paperwork increase and, and are the reasons for it good or are they perhaps more bureaucratic?

I. [00:14:00] 

Thomas Weitzel: They, they're more bureaucratic. They've increased because the law, the Illinois, they've passed laws that require us to document much more. We, we have to document everything we do. Traffic stops, write a report. There's no such thing. Hey, here's, if, if, if you didn't write a report on it, it didn't happen. I.

That's the way the law looks at it. It didn't exist. So you have to do paperwork on everything. And it used to be kind of a, you know, people used to laugh and say, well, a defendant was outta custody before the officer was done with his paperwork. That's a true reality on these notice to appears where you arrest somebody, they are literally out the door before you're done with your paperwork.

I think what one thing that will change law enforcement, one of the biggest tools that'll come into law enforcement in the next three to five years will be that you will see reports being done by ai. There, there are law enforcement engines are gonna switch over to an AI platform that will allow that, all that paperwork to be streamlined.

It's not here yet, but it's coming. 

Brian Hyde: Wow. Now that that will be something to watch for. Again, we are talking with Tom [00:15:00] Whitesell. He is the retired police chief from Riverside in Illinois. And as we wrap things up today, Tom, is, is there a takeaway that you would like our listeners to, to pull from our conversation, whether it's regarding the Safety Act or just, or just, uh, policing in general?

What would you like them to take away from, from our discussion? 

Thomas Weitzel: You know, I would like to say that, you know, police officers, they're stop. We're not bad people. These officers, you know, in most cases, they're your neighbors. They play softball, their kids play softball with your kids. Baseball, they go to the same church as you.

You know, we're, you know, most of the police agencies have their officers leave in the community, or at least. Like a five mile radius so the officers are embedded in the communities to think that somehow that we're the bad guy or that we're somehow not, you know, just, or not wanting criminal justice reform.

No, I. There, there was some reform needed to be done in law enforcement, but not what was put forward. I could tell you that. So these, these [00:16:00] are really hardworking men and women, and they're, they're, they're doing the best they can given the tools that they have. And I would say, at least from an Illinois perspective, we need to really support law enforcement because the morale is down.

And like I said earlier in our interview, officers are jumping, they're leaving the state for other states that are more. Pro law enforcement. So I'd keep that in mind because these are good men and women that we want coming into this profession. They're young. They're young. They're 23, 24, 25, wanting to make it a career.

Let's keep 'em in Illinois. 

Brian Hyde: Tom, is there a website you would direct people to if they'd like to, to get on board with your cause? 

Thomas Weitzel: You can go, I do a lot on Twitter or X that could follow me on, on X. It's at Chief Wezel, that's at C-H-I-E-F-W-E-I-T-Z-E-L, and that's where I put out most of my opinions and information.

I. 

Brian Hyde: Very good. Thank you so much for, for joining us today again talking with the former police [00:17:00] chief Tom Wetzel, and this is the Prairie State Wire Podcast.