PEORIA, Ill. – The state budget includes money that will greatly help Peoria Police and other area law enforcement.
That’s according to State Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth, who used police headquarters as a backdrop Monday to announce millions coming here under her “Downstate Urban Crime Reduction and Violence Prevention Initiative,” that — among other things — she says will hopefully help more people come forward to report potential crimes.
“We need people to feel safe. They need to feel protected. They need to be put in an environment where, if they were to come forward, they would not fear for their lives, or potentially for the lives of their children,” said Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria). “And, because we have not had a system and a process and policy that, frankly, allowed for that, we knew that it was more than time that we put our money where our mouth is.”
Gordon-Booth says it’s part of some $40 million aggregate in community resources that could be in the Peoria area come the turn of the fiscal year.
As we’ve previously reported, the initiatives include having mental health officials respond either with or in place of police officers on certain calls.
“These are individuals that we don’t want to have out at the jail,” said Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell. “The jail is a de facto mental health center. So, by creating a program of social workers and other responders to help the true root causes of these individuals, will prevent them from that type of incarceration.”
Lawmakers say some money will also help things like providing affordable housing, and other things, so people don’t feel they have to live a life of crime.
