Rep. John Cabello

Amends the Illinois Police Training Act. Provides that all police dogs used by State and local law enforcement agencies for drug enforcement purposes under the Illinois Controlled Substances Act and the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act shall be trained by programs that meet the minimum certification requirements set by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board or a national association qualified to certify working police dogs. Provides that on or after the effective date of the amendatory Act, notwithstanding any provision of law, police dogs used by State and local law enforcement agencies for drug enforcement purposes under the Cannabis Control Act may be trained by programs that meet the minimum certification requirements set by the Board or a national association qualified to certify working police dogs. Makes technical changes. Effective immediately.

Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Removes the date of the inoperability of the eavesdropping exemption that provides with prior request to and written or verbal approval of the State's Attorney of the county in which the conversation is anticipated to occur, recording or listening with the aid of an eavesdropping device to a conversation in which a law enforcement officer, or any person acting at the direction of a law enforcement officer, is a party to the conversation and has consented to the conversation being intercepted or recorded in the course of an investigation of a qualified offense as defined in the exemption.

Amends the Illinois Police Training Act. Provides that all police dogs used by State and local law enforcement agencies for drug enforcement purposes under the Cannabis Control Act, the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, and the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act shall be trained by programs that meet the minimum certification requirements set by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board, except for those certification requirements for drug enforcement purposes under the Cannabis Control Act or any drug enforcement purpose with respect to cannabis on or after the effective date of the amendatory Act if and only if recreational use of cannabis is enacted. Makes technical changes. Effective immediately.

Amends the River Edge Redevelopment Zone Act. Provides that the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity may certify one additional pilot River Edge Redevelopment Zone in the City of Kankakee. Effective immediately.

Creates the Public Official Body Camera Act. Provides that the State Board of Elections shall develop rules for the use of body cameras by public officials of the State. Specifies requirements concerning the use of body cameras. Provides that recordings made with the use of a body camera worn by a public official are not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Provides that the recordings may be used as evidence in any administrative, judicial, legislative, or disciplinary proceeding. Provides that if a court or other finder of fact finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a recording was intentionally not captured, destroyed, altered, or intermittently captured in violation of the Act, then the court or other finder of fact shall consider or be instructed to consider that violation in weighing the evidence, unless the State provides a reasonable justification. Makes conforming changes to the Freedom of Information Act.

Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Includes as a predicate offense under the Illinois Street Gang and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Law (or "RICO") a Class 2 felony or higher violation of the dog fighting statute. Increases the penalties for dog fighting by one class.

Amends the Illinois Public Aid Code. Provides that any person who possesses for an unlawful purpose another person's Electronic Benefit Transfer card (EBT) or LINK card in order to use or transfer in any manner not authorized by law or the rules and regulations of the Department of Human Services the cash assistance benefits held on that EBT or LINK card is guilty of a violation and shall be subject to certain penalties established under the Code. Effective immediately.

Amends the General Assembly Compensation Act. Provides that beginning in 2019, and for each year thereafter, if the General Assembly fails to pass a balanced budget by June 30 of each year, the compensation to be paid to members of the General Assembly, including the additional sums payable to officers of the General Assembly, shall be withheld until a balanced budget is passed. Amends the State Budget Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois. Removes the salary of members of the General Assembly from continuing appropriations provisions. Effective immediately.

Honors all women residing in skilled nursing facilities in Illinois for their lifelong service to their families and communities.

Amends the Community Mental Health Act. Provides that upon receipt of all the annual moneys collected from the tax levied under the Act, each governmental unit that levies that tax shall immediately deposit 30% of those moneys into a special fund directly controlled by the county sheriff to be used for mental health services within the county jail.