The SAFE-T Act includes a state-wide end to cash bail and a provision that prevents cops from searching for missing offenders until 48 hours after they’re in violation.The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today was passed in 2022 and put into effect on January 1, making Illinois the first state in the country to completely eliminate cash bail.

This means pretrial detainees charged with crimes as serious as second-degree murder, aggravated battery and arson could now be released without a cash bond.The act made headlines when online critics compared it to The Purge movie where all crime becomes legal for one day a year.

Former Illinois State Trooper and proponent of the SAFE-T Act Marie Franklin told KSDK the law would affect over 250,000 people a year who are held in pretrial detention but unable to post bail.The law has mostly been rejected by the state’s law enforcement community, with 100 of Illinois’ 102 county prosecutors opposing it.

It has also been slammed by the families of victims of violent crime, including Joy Dobbs, whose son Dakotah Earley, 23, was nearly killed in May when he was shot during a robbery.Dobbs told The U.S. Sun the law will “create a criminal’s paradise” and “jeopardizes everyone.”

While advocates point out that a judge will still have to make the decision in each case on who stays behind bars and who will be released, former Riverside, Illinois Police Chief Thomas Weitzel told The U.S. Sun the law will put lives at risk.