Cook County State's Attorney's Office's Legislative Initiatives:

Working with the Illinois General Assembly to improve our state laws
on behalf of the citizens of Cook County

Toughening Illinois' Identity Theft Statute

In 1999, the Office crafted and pursued the enactment of one of the first identity theft laws in the country. This new law was necessary to address one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation. With the increasing use of credit and debit cards in both in-person and Internet transactions, offenders quickly learned that personal identification information has monetary value and that such information can be sold to others for illicit use. To prevent this new illicit enterprise of selling personal identification information, the State's Attorney's Office drafted an amendment in 2003 and successfully advocated for its passage in Springfield. The 2003 amendment extends identity theft to include the theft of an individual's identity for purposes beyond mere financial gain. Under this measure, the following acts can constitute identity theft: (1) knowing use of a person's identification to obtain credit, money, goods, services, or other property; or (2) knowing use of a person's identification to commit any felony; or (3) knowingly obtaining, recording, possessing, selling, transferring, purchasing, or manufacturing a person's identification information to commit or to aid or abet another in committing a felony; or (4) knowingly using, obtaining, recording, possessing, selling, transferring, purchasing, or manufacturing a person's identification information knowing that such personal identification information was stolen or produced without lawful authority, or (5) knowingly using, transferring, or possessing document-making implements to produce false identification or false documents with the knowledge that they will be used to commit a felony. Governor Blagojevich signed Public Act 93-401 on July 31, 2003. This tough, expanded statute took effect immediately upon the governor's signature.

Cracking Down on Dog Abusers

The Office assisted in the passage of a new law to respond to the growing problem of abuse of dogs and other animals for profit. Dog fighting and the exhibition of other animal fighting is a widespread concern affecting all of Illinois and crossing all socioeconomic barriers. These fights take place on street corners and in alleys, exposing and promoting violence against animals to children of all ages. Fights that take place in basements or garages on a more professional level can result in proceeds anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 on a given night. Drugs and other contraband are often made available at these events as well. The new law, Public Act 93-192, targets organized animal fights where the organizer owns, houses and trains multiple animals, keeps them out of sight in basements and harbors the tools of the animal fighting trade: a fighting arena, treadmills, heavy chains, garage door springs, breaking sticks, steroids, antibiotics, sutures and hypodermic needles.

The law also penalizes offenders who partake in the highly profitable nature of animal fighting. Under this new law, once an individual is convicted for a felony offense associated with dog or animal fighting, the State's Attorney or Attorney General may seek forfeiture of any moneys, profits or proceeds the person acquired in whole or in part as a result of the violation and any real property or interest in real property acquired in whole or in part as a result of committing the violation or maintained or used in whole or in part to facilitate the commission of the violation. The law requires notice of the forfeiture proceedings and contains exemptions for innocent interest holders. Under this public act, the Director of the State Police is to sell the forfeited property so that the proceeds of the sale can be distributed to the law enforcement agencies that participated in the investigation. Governor Blagojevich approved this law on July 14, 2003.

Cutting the Flow of Illegal Drug Profits

The Office sponsored this new law that amends the current theft and money laundering statutes. The law enhances penalties for these offenses where the property involved is in excess of $500,000. By providing that such offenses are non-probationable, this change ensures that convicted thieves and money launderers will serve mandatory prison time. The law also contains an important "reverse-sting" provision that helps undercover police officers who are investigating theft and money laundering operations. If an officer represents that he has illicit money that the officer wants the suspect business to "launder", the new law provides that this money is legally considered to be "criminally derived property". Thus, this new amendment will allow law enforcement to conduct undercover sting investigations of suspect businesses by representing to these businesses that the money offered is criminally derived money. This new law, Public Act 93-520, became effective on August 12, 2003