Will County Gazette

Body cameras will become a reality for police across the state as a new law places mandatory requirements on nine law enforcement agencies across Illinois. 

Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) posted on Facebook Dec. 22, that he predicted tax hikes for communities ordered to buy the body cameras.

“For counties with populations over 500,000, the mandatory use of police body cameras takes effect on January 1, 2022," Wilcox said in his post. "This includes Lake County. 

"When passing this bill, Democrats did not provide a revenue stream for this extremely costly mandate, so our police departments will have to find a way to fund it themselves. That usually means a tax increase,” he wrote. 

In addition to Lake County, this mandate will apply to the city of Chicago, as well as Cook, DuPage, Kane, and Will counties. Under the new law, every officer in the state will be required to wear a body camera by 2025. 

According to a report by Illinois Policy, in his three years in office, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has imposed 24 tax and fee increases, totaling $5.2 billion. These increases included doubling the motor fuel tax in 2019; increasing vehicle registration fees by $50; and increasing the tax on cigarettes, e-cigarettes and video game consoles.

A March 18 report by the Tax Foundation reports Illinois had the 10th-highest tax burden in the nation in 2019, with more than 11% of residents’ income being put to state and local taxes. Among all states in the U.S., state-local tax burdens averaged 10.3% of national income.