A bill passed in this year’s legislative session would rewrite the definition of a “forcible felony” to allow Illinois State Police to use images obtained from automatic license plate readers in cases involving human trafficking and involuntary servitude.

Automatic license plate readers are cameras that capture images of vehicle license plates. After obtaining pictures captured by LPRs, state police software runs the license plate numbers through other law enforcement databases – including the National Crime Information Center, Department of Homeland Security, Illinois Secretary of State and National Amber Alerts. The software then alerts ISP officials when a license plate number matches one in the databases.

Current law allows ISP to use the cameras for the investigation of cases involving vehicular hijacking, aggravated vehicular hijacking, terrorism, motor vehicle theft, or any forcible felony, which includes treason, first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping, aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm.

House Bill 3339, sponsored by Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D-Calumet City), would add the offenses of human trafficking and involuntary servitude to the definition of forcible felony in that section of law.

“It’s very focused on specific types of crime,” ISP Director Brendan Kelly said about the bill in March. “It’s not for speeding, it’s not for traffic enforcement, this is for serious offenses, and we use it in a limited and focused way and in a highly effective way.”

LPR cameras are in operation in and around the metro east – including on I-255 in Columbia and Route 3 in Waterloo.

(Information courtesy of Capitol News Illinois)