SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois State Police (ISP) plans to use new funding to roll out its largest number of new troopers on IL roads.
It's part of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's budget plan to fight crime across the state.
ISP is slated to hire and train 300 new troopers with roughly $18.6 million in state funding.
"What we're looking at is rebuilding the Illinois State Police," said ISP Director Brendan Kelly.
It will be the largest amount of funding and number of troopers the agency will receive in a single year.
"The more people that we have to do those very important duties, the very difficult work, the better we're all off going to be," Kelly said.
Director Brendan Kelly says the department saw a drop of troopers in 2017, but it's now focused on growing.
"It's going to be very important to laying the right foundation for the long term," Kelly said. "We've been steadily and slowly but surely building up the Illinois State Police again over the past two and a half years."
While the department is not seeing a worker shortage, it is facing the challenges of policing today.
"For law enforcement, it has been a very challenging period," Kelly said. "There's been so many difficult things coming at law enforcement."
From tragedies of troopers on the road, to incidents at crimes scenes, Kelly explained that also keeps people from getting behind the badge.
"It's an ongoing effort," he said. "There's obviously challenges in terms of people's perception of law enforcement."
Kelly said the challenge is also the current economy with high unemployment. He said internal recruitment will help counter those struggles.
"It's obviously person to person," Kelly said. "It's obviously the people that we have in the agency reaching out to people that they know."
The department has around 1,800 troopers and is aiming for roughly 2,000 by 2023.
"It's very important that we continue to grow the number of sworn officers that we have because of the many responsibilities that we have," Kelly said. "The more good people that we have, the more we will have success in confronting those challenges."
Illinois Republican senators are proposing their own public safety package, which includes funding for hiring and training more police. The plan also repeals the 2021 changes to the "bail reform act" legislation they blame for pushing people out of law enforcement.
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