Move afoot to delay implementation of new stalker law

Illinois court systems are so sure they won't be ready to deal with a new stalker law coming on the books Jan. 1 that they are making a last-minute push to delay the mandate.

The law, inspired by the slaying of an Arlington Heights woman stalked by her ex-boyfriend this past March, would place defendants charged with violating an order of protection on 24-hour GPS monitoring from the time they make bail until sentencing.

Legislators drafted the law after Michael Giroux gunned down Cindy Bischof in the parking lot of her Elmhurst workplace after violating an order of protection against him three times. Giroux killed himself after shooting Bischof.

While the idea is solid, its implementation is less certain.

Sid DeLair, president of the Illinois Probation and Court Services Association, said some key flaws in the legislation relate to the GPS system itself.

For one, there doesn't seem to be a device that marries GPS tracking and a communication device into one package. Without a way to call the potential victim about the stalker approaching, the monitoring does little good, DeLair said.

Police must also be able to communicate with the person wearing the GPS to ask why they have entered a so-called "red zone."

That touches on a another problem: ambiguity about whether court services or someone else would be first to respond to a problem. That's particularly an issue for false alarms.

"In those cases nothing wrong has been done, but now it's 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning, police are busy, who is going to be responsible for going out and checking on that GPS?" DeLair said. "If you start looking at court services having to have staff 24/7, 365, then you're talking about a cost that's just going to be astronomical."

Many court services departments, such as in Kane County, don't have the staff or money for 24-hour GPS monitoring.

"This law is probably what we need to do," said Kane County Court Services Executive Director Jim Mueller. "I don't think we can do it (by Jan. 1)."

With those problems, and potential liability, in mind, discussions about delaying the Jan. 1 implementation began this week.

John McCabe represents the court services association in those discussions. He fears lawmakers don't have the "political will" to stall the law long enough to see it actually work the way it is intended.

"Nobody wants to say I voted to roll this back and then we have another unfortunate incident," McCabe said.

DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett has been the only public official to say his court services staff will be ready for the new law on Jan. 1. He softened that commitment on Thursday.

"There are a lot of proposals which are laudable and well intentioned, but there isn't a lot of discussion about whether or not they are able to be implemented on time," Birkett said. "I think this is an example of that, but we're going to try."