By JADE AUBREY
Capitol News Illinois
jaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois police officers soon could be required to undergo trauma-informed sexual assault training if the governor signs a bill passed by Illinois lawmakers last week.
Senate Bill 1195, dubbed Anna’s Law, mandates police officers take part in trauma-informed programs, procedures and practices that are intended to “minimize traumatization of the victim” before being sworn in as an officer.
The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously and now awaits approval from the governor to become law.
Currently, Illinois law enforcement officials must undergo a variety of training programs before being sworn in – including training that provides education on “cultural perception and common myths of sexual assault and sexual abuse.”
Anna’s Law would mandate that training on the issue of sexual assault and abuse and teach officers how to identity and address conflicts of interest, such as when an officer knows the victims or the perpetrator.
Illinois police officers are also currently required to repeat some trainings every three years for recertification – including training on child abuse and neglect, autism-informed responses and cultural competency. Anna’s Law would also mandate police officers complete the same trauma-informed sexual assault training every three years.
“This wasn’t about shaking or pointing fingers,” the bill sponsor, Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, D-Libertyville, told Capitol News Illinois. “It was just, how can we do better?”
Anna’s Law is named after 23-year-old Illinois resident Anna Williams, who brought the issue of police insensitivity to victims of sexual assault to state lawmakers after her experience with law enforcement officials in 2021.
Williams said after she was sexually assaulted in 2021, she met with the police officer assigned to her case as she was being examined at the hospital. When Williams told the officer the name of her perpetrator, she said his response was, “Oh, I know him. He’s a great guy.”
Williams said she requested a different officer for her case multiple times, a request which was never granted, and that the officer repeatedly asked whether she was “sure” that the assault “wasn’t consensual” on multiple occasions.
“I gave him like a list of people who I told (about the assault),” Williams said. “When he called them, he asked everyone if I cried when I told them and was just being very invalidating and discrediting the whole time and asked them, like, if they believed what I said.”
Williams said after prosecutors repeatedly declined to bring charges against her perpetrator, she requested to see a record of the statements she made to the officer through the Freedom of Information Act. When reviewing the records, Williams said the officer’s record of her statements was incorrect.
“In my statements, it was written that I said that everything was consensual when I never said that,” she said. “And when I brought it up, it was just kind of brushed off. I was never expecting that it would be so challenging with law enforcement on the situation until it happened.”
After passing the Senate unanimously in early April, the bill was sponsored in the House by Republican lawmaker Rep. Jackie Haas, R- Kankakee.
“Personally, for myself, it’s helped me to find closure in everything,” Williams said of the bill’s passage. “It’s let me feel kind of like I still have a voice, I still have power and I can still use that to help people.”
Creation of Anna’s Law
The formation of Anna’s Law started as a school project for Williams, who said she never originally imagined the bill might one day become law.
After the assault, Williams joined the National Society of Leadership and Success at Northern Illinois University, where she was enrolled as an undergraduate student. To be inducted into the program, she said members were asked to complete a project that required them to take action on an issue they were passionate about.
“I was talking to my mom and I was explaining how, like, I can’t just make a law and she said ‘yes you can,’” Williams said. “And I said no, there’s no way, I’m just a normal little person. And she was like no, anyone can make a law, you can do that.”
After that conversation, Williams said she created a draft of potential bill language and compiled a list of all state laws regarding sexual assault that “didn’t sit right” with her. She then brought the information to state lawmakers during a town hall meeting held by then-Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights, in 2023.
“I went to the meeting and kind of explained hey, this is what I want to do, is this something you can take and do whatever you have to do with it?” Williams said. “So that’s what started the law.”
In early April, Williams sat beside Sen. Edly-Allen during a hearing in the Senate Criminal Law Committee and testified to lawmakers. Williams said she did not expect the committee hearing to be as “scary” as it was, but that providing her testimony was empowering and solidified her belief that she was doing “the right thing.”
“It’s kind of unreal to me that it’s gone so far and the thing that I’m most excited about is how it’s going to help other people,” she said. “Hopefully, it helps them to come forward and actually report their assault to law enforcement without being afraid of being invalidated or blamed or just going through the whole re-traumatization.”
In late April, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky filed House Resolution 3121, or Anna’s Law, in the U.S. House for the second year in a row. That version of the federal legislation has many more requirements for national law enforcement officials and currently awaits further action.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
