Bill Text: IL SB0235 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Counties Code. Removes a provision limiting a special investigator appointed by a State's Attorney to carrying a firearm only in the performance of the special investigator's assigned duties (currently, a special investigator shall not carry firearms except with permission of the State's Attorney and only while carrying appropriate identification indicating the special investigator's employment and in the performance of the special investigator's assigned duties).

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-22 - Referred to Assignments [SB0235 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-SB0235-Introduced.html

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104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2025 and 2026 SB0235 Introduced 1/22/2025, by Sen. Seth Lewis SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
55 ILCS 5/3-9005 from Ch. 34, par. 3-9005
Amends the Counties Code. Removes a provision limiting a special investigator appointed by a State's Attorney to carrying a firearm only in the performance of the special investigator's assigned duties (currently, a special investigator shall not carry firearms except with permission of the State's Attorney and only while carrying appropriate identification indicating the special investigator's employment and in the performance of the special investigator's assigned duties).
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning local government.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Counties Code is amended by changing
Section 3-9005 as follows:
(55 ILCS 5/3-9005) (from Ch. 34, par. 3-9005)
Sec. 3-9005. Powers and duties of State's Attorney.
(a) The duty of each State's Attorney shall be:
(1) To commence and prosecute all actions, suits,
indictments and prosecutions, civil and criminal, in the
circuit court for the county, in which the people of the
State or county may be concerned.
(2) To prosecute all forfeited bonds and
recognizances, and all actions and proceedings for the
recovery of debts, revenues, moneys, fines, penalties and
forfeitures accruing to the State or the county, or to any
school district or road district in the county; also, to
prosecute all suits in the county against railroad or
transportation companies, which may be prosecuted in the
name of the People of the State of Illinois.
(3) To commence and prosecute all actions and
proceedings brought by any county officer in the county
officer's official capacity.

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(4) To defend all actions and proceedings brought
against the county, or against any county or State
officer, in the county or State officer's official
capacity, within the county.
(5) To attend the examination of all persons brought
before any judge on habeas corpus, when the prosecution is
in the county.
(6) To attend before judges and prosecute charges of
felony or misdemeanor, for which the offender is required
to be recognized to appear before the circuit court, when
in the State's Attorney's power so to do.
(7) To give the State's Attorney's opinion, without
fee or reward, to any county officer in the county, upon
any question or law relating to any criminal or other
matter, in which the people or the county may be
concerned.
(8) To assist the Attorney General whenever it may be
necessary, and in cases of appeal from the county to the
Supreme Court, to which it is the duty of the Attorney
General to attend, the State's Attorney shall furnish the
Attorney General at least 10 days before such is due to be
filed, a manuscript of a proposed statement, brief and
argument to be printed and filed on behalf of the people,
prepared in accordance with the rules of the Supreme
Court. However, if such brief, argument or other document
is due to be filed by law or order of court within this

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10-day period, then the State's Attorney shall furnish
such as soon as may be reasonable.
(9) To pay all moneys received by the State's Attorney
in trust, without delay, to the officer who by law is
entitled to the custody thereof.
(10) To notify, by first class mail, complaining
witnesses of the ultimate disposition of the cases arising
from an indictment or an information.
(11) To perform such other and further duties as may,
from time to time, be enjoined on the State's Attorney by
law.
(12) To appear in all proceedings by collectors of
taxes against delinquent taxpayers for judgments to sell
real estate, and see that all the necessary preliminary
steps have been legally taken to make the judgment legal
and binding.
(13) To notify, by first-class mail, the State
Superintendent of Education, the applicable regional
superintendent of schools, and the superintendent of the
employing school district or the chief school
administrator of the employing nonpublic school, if any,
upon the conviction of any individual known to possess a
certificate or license issued pursuant to Article 21 or
21B, respectively, of the School Code of any offense set
forth in Section 21B-80 of the School Code or any other
felony conviction, providing the name of the certificate

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holder, the fact of the conviction, and the name and
location of the court where the conviction occurred. The
certificate holder must also be contemporaneously sent a
copy of the notice.
(b) The State's Attorney of each county shall have
authority to appoint one or more special investigators to
serve subpoenas and summonses, make return of process, and
conduct investigations which assist the State's Attorney in
the performance of the State's Attorney duties. In counties of
the first and second class, the fees for service of subpoenas
and summonses are allowed by this Section and shall be
consistent with those set forth in Section 4-5001 of this Act,
except when increased by county ordinance as provided for in
Section 4-5001. In counties of the third class, the fees for
service of subpoenas and summonses are allowed by this Section
and shall be consistent with those set forth in Section
4-12001 of this Act. A special investigator shall not carry
firearms except with permission of the State's Attorney and
only while carrying appropriate identification indicating the
special investigator's employment and in the performance of
the special investigator's assigned duties.
Subject to the qualifications set forth in this
subsection, special investigators shall be peace officers and
shall have all the powers possessed by investigators under the
State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Act.
No special investigator employed by the State's Attorney

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shall have peace officer status or exercise police powers
unless the special investigator successfully completes the
basic police training course mandated and approved by the
Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board or such
board waives the training requirement by reason of the special
investigator's prior law enforcement experience or training or
both. Any State's Attorney appointing a special investigator
shall consult with all affected local police agencies, to the
extent consistent with the public interest, if the special
investigator is assigned to areas within that agency's
jurisdiction.
Before a person is appointed as a special investigator,
the person's fingerprints shall be taken and transmitted to
the Department of State Police. The Department shall examine
its records and submit to the State's Attorney of the county in
which the investigator seeks appointment any conviction
information concerning the person on file with the Department.
No person shall be appointed as a special investigator if the
person has been convicted of a felony or other offense
involving moral turpitude. A special investigator shall be
paid a salary and be reimbursed for actual expenses incurred
in performing the special investigator's assigned duties. The
county board shall approve the salary and actual expenses and
appropriate the salary and expenses in the manner prescribed
by law or ordinance.
(c) The State's Attorney may request and receive from

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employers, labor unions, telephone companies, and utility
companies location information concerning putative fathers and
noncustodial parents for the purpose of establishing a child's
paternity or establishing, enforcing, or modifying a child
support obligation. In this subsection, "location information"
means information about (i) the physical whereabouts of a
putative father or noncustodial parent, (ii) the putative
father or noncustodial parent's employer, or (iii) the salary,
wages, and other compensation paid and the health insurance
coverage provided to the putative father or noncustodial
parent by the employer of the putative father or noncustodial
parent or by a labor union of which the putative father or
noncustodial parent is a member.
(d) (Blank).
(e) The State's Attorney shall have the authority to enter
into a written agreement with the Department of Revenue for
pursuit of civil liability under subsection (E) of Section
17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012 against persons who have
issued to the Department checks or other orders in violation
of the provisions of paragraph (1) of subsection (B) of
Section 17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012, with the Department
to retain the amount owing upon the dishonored check or order
along with the dishonored check fee imposed under the Uniform
Penalty and Interest Act, with the balance of damages, fees,
and costs collected under subsection (E) of Section 17-1 of
the Criminal Code of 2012 or under Section 17-1a of that Code

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