CHICAGO — Illinois State Police are urging people to comply with the state's stay-at-home order, but it said it doesn't plan on arresting people who are in violation of the order.
In a Facebook post, Illinois State Police said they don’t plan on issuing criminal misdemeanors to people violating the state’s stay-at-home order. They are urging people to comply with the order.
“No individual will be arrested or taken to jail for a violation of the Executive Orders or emergency rules. We encourage all citizens to continue to do their part to maintain public health as we move forward in the days ahead with Reopening Illinois,” Illinois State Police said in part on Facebook.
The post has been shared thousands of times and has more than 1,000 comments on it.
Below is the full post from the Illinois State Police Facebook page on May 19.
“UPDATE: An emergency rule that allowed the imposition of a Class A misdemeanor on businesses that defied the stay-at-home order was withdrawn on Wednesday.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois State Police (ISP) continues to focus on community caretaking, educating citizens and businesses and urging voluntary compliance.
As part of that effort, the ISP will act incrementally to urge compliance of the executive order.
Consistent with this community spirit and with state law, policy guidance and discretion, the Illinois State Police will not issue any criminal misdemeanors to individuals for violations of temporary emergency rules or executive orders.
The Illinois State Police will only apply those emergency rules to entities such as corporations, LLPs or other business entities consistent with state and constitutional law. No individual will be arrested or taken to jail for a violation of the Executive Orders or emergency rules. We encourage all citizens to continue to do their part to maintain public health as we move forward in the days ahead with Reopening Illinois.”
On Wednesday, Illinois’ count of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 100,000.
On May 20, Illinois reported 2,388 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 147 new deaths.
There have been 100,418 total confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4,525 deaths, according to the Illinois Department of Health. A total of 642,713 tests have been performed.
On May 5, Gov. Pritzker announced a five-phase, regional plan for reopening the state.
