State Senator Toi Hutchison has introduced Senate Bill 1547, which will protect tenants and landlords from evictions, fines, or loss of a business simply because they called the police when they were in need.
It seems common sense that people should not be punished for calling the police for help, but in at least 35 communities in Illinois that is what happens. These municipalities have enacted ordinances—often called crime-free or nuisance property ordinances—penalizing residents or landlords when police are called to their property. As a result, individuals throughout the state face the threat of eviction, fines, or other penalties for making 911 calls for help.
The impact of these local ordinances falls most harshly on many different types of people, including:
- Crime victims, who are faced with the choice of suffering silently or risking homelessness.
- Survivors of domestic violence, because treating police calls as a “nuisance” sends a victim-blaming message to survivors of domestic violence and discourages them from seeking help.
- People with disabilities, who are disproportionately likely to need police or emergency services from rental properties.
Overall, these ordinances undermine public safety in communities throughout Illinois. By linking calls to the police with eviction and fines, these ordinances deter tenants, landlords, and neighbors from contacting police in emergency situations.
The Solution: Senate Bill 1547
- Similar to laws already passed in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, SB 1547 is designed to protect individuals who call the police for help.
- SB 1547 will prevent local governments from enacting or enforcing ordinances that punish tenants or landlords for calling the police in response to domestic or sexual violence, criminal activity, or other emergency situations.
- SB 1547 will enable tenants and landlords affected by these unlawful ordinances to ask the courts to invalidate them. They also provide a cause of action for tenants and landlords to seek damages if they have been harmed, such as a tenant who has been evicted for contacting the police.
SB 1547 is drafted narrowly to target only those ordinances that pose the most serious risk of harm to survivors of domestic violence, crime victims and other innocent tenants—those linking enforcement and the imposition of penalties with police contact.
What You Can Do
SB 1547 is facing stiff opposition from the municipalities with these ordinances. We need to generate letters of support to your State Senator saying we all want safer communities, but that penalizing people for calling the police is a wrongheaded way of accomplishing this.
If your organization agrees with us, we also ask that you add your group to the list of endorsing organizations, which currently includes American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network, Housing Action Illinois, Illinois Association of Realtors, Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, League of Women Voters of Illinois, Lutheran Advocacy-Illinois, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and many others.
Click here to show your support for protecting people in need who call the police.