Expect 'Marked' Jump In Crime: Hinsdale Leader

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale's village president on Tuesday warned about a big increase in crime because of a new state law that ended cash bail.

At a Village Board meeting, Village President Tom Cauley spoke about last month's arrest of a Chicago man in the burglary of a downtown Hinsdale store. The man is accused of being one of seven people who broke into the store in early May.

A DuPage County judge released 30-year-old Terry Johnson, who authorities said was on parole for armed robbery and aggravated battery in Cook County.

The judge was required to release Johnson because burglary was excluded from the detainable offenses under the new law, prosecutors said.

"With the individual's criminal record, the judge should have the discretion to hold him pending trial, but the SAFE-T Act prohibits a judge from exercising his or her discretion," Cauley said. "Mark my words, we will see a marked pick-up in crime because of the SAFE-T Act, which now has been in effect for a little more than two weeks."

Cauley has spoken with certainty before in his predictions.

Last October, Cauley raised the specter of tent cities in Hinsdale's parks because of the new law. He argued the law barred police from arresting criminal trespassers in most cases.

"I guarantee you that we're going to find ourselves with people just camped out in parks, and we cannot ask them to leave," Cauley told the Village Board. "They may be in your backyard or in your shed living there."

Cauley made his statement in the weeks leading up to the November election, in which the SAFE-T Act was a contentious issue.

At the time, the law's proponents argued the statute allowed the arrest of trespassers. But after the election, they clarified the language about detaining trespassers.

In his comments Tuesday, Cauley cited the position of DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin, who wants the new law changed but supports the concept of doing away with cash bail.