Court Rules Illinois Prosecutor’s Vigilante Police Force Illegal
LaSalle County prosecutor Brian Towne. (Photo: Scott Anderson)
The Illinois Supreme Court vacated a woman’s drug-trafficking conviction, ruling that a police unit operated by an Illinois county state’s attorney’s office, independent from the county’s regular police force, had no authority to make traffic stops.
In 2011, former LaSalle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne formed a police force separate from the county’s police force called the State’s Attorney Felony Enforcement, or SAFE, unit.
