Police Chief Charles A. Gruber of St. Charles, Illinois, a 40-year vet­er­an of law enforce­ment, recent­ly stat­ed that ​“the death penal­ty does noth­ing to keep us safe,” and should be abol­ished. Chief Gruber served as pres­i­dent of both the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He worked with nation­al orga­ni­za­tions for over a decade to devise reforms to make the death penal­ty effec­tive and fair but now now believes Illinois will always leave open the pos­si­bil­i­ty of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son and will sub­ject mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies to excru­ci­at­ing­ly long pro­ceed­ings. In an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, he wrote, ​“I am grate­ful that SB 3539 not only gets rid of a sys­tem that has proven itself too flawed to fix, but that also puts the sav­ings from the death penal­ty where they are des­per­ate­ly need­ed: law enforce­ment train­ing. The best thing we can do to ensure the safe­ty of our com­mu­ni­ties and men and women in uni­form is to see that law enforce­ment have the resources and train­ing they need to do their job well.” Read full op-ed below.

Repealing death penal­ty is the right thing to do

As a police chief with more than 40 years of law enforce­ment expe­ri­ence, I com­mend the Illinois House of Representatives for pass­ing SB 3539 to repeal the death penal­ty. This is a bill that is a long time in the mak­ing, and deals with an issue I have long worked on and strug­gled with. As for­mer President of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and for­mer President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, I have worked with National orga­ni­za­tions to devise reforms to make the death penal­ty effec­tive and fair. However, after watch­ing Illinois attempt reforms for near­ly 11 years, it is clear to me we can­not get the death penal­ty right. There will always be the pos­si­bil­i­ty of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son; there will always be a tremen­dous­ly long tri­al that sub­jects vic­tims’ fam­i­lies to an excru­ci­at­ing process; and there will always be tremen­dous costs involved. All of this might be jus­ti­fied if the death penal­ty was a deter­rent or help­ful law enforce­ment tool in any way, but this is not the case. My pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence has shown that the death penal­ty does noth­ing to keep us safe, and my col­leagues con­firmed this in a 2009 nation­al poll of police chiefs in which the death penal­ty was ranked the least effec­tive tool for deter­ring violent crime.

I am grate­ful that SB 3539 not only gets rid of a sys­tem that has proven itself too flawed to fix, but that also puts the sav­ings from the death penal­ty where they are des­per­ate­ly need­ed: law enforce­ment train­ing. The best thing we can do to ensure the safe­ty of our com­mu­ni­ties and men and women in uni­form is to see that law enforce­ment have the resources and train­ing they need to do their job well. SB 3539 does just that. I am proud that Illinois is tak­ing a step away from pour­ing a dis­pro­por­tion­ate amount of time and mon­ey into a few cap­i­tal cas­es, and mov­ing toward ensur­ing all law enforce­ment have the resources they need. This bill is not just tough on crime, it’s also smart on crime. 

– Chief Charles A. Gruber, St. Charles

(C. Gruber, ​“Repealing death penal­ty is the right thing to do,” Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2011). Read more about law enforce­ment offi­cials’ views on the death penal­ty. See Innocence and Victims. Read DPIC’s report, ​“Smart on Crime.”

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