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Chicago’s former top detective spoke out about no-cash bail policies that wreak havoc on urban policing efforts after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the practice earlier this week.
“Every place in the country where you have no-cash bail is a disaster,” Trump told the press before signing the order on Monday. “I mean, bad politicians started it, bad leadership started it. But that was the one thing that’s central. No-cash bail. Somebody murders somebody and they’re out on no-cash bail before the day is out.”
He specifically mentioned Chicago as a city that has been hit hard by no-cash bail policies.
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Eugene Roy was part of the Chicago Police Department from 1986 to 2016, starting as a patrol officer and retiring as the city’s chief detective. He told Fox News Digital that in 2012 he started seeing changes in city leadership that led to the current no-cash bail policy.
“We had a crew of young liberal progressive legislators who were intent on passing all sorts of legislation,” he said. “It was a start of the no-cash bond movement. It was the start of the so-called SAFE-T Act, which just lets people back out on the street after committing violent crimes and with no protection whatsoever for the victims that they terrorized or the communities that they terrorized.”
The state of Illinois eventually passed the SAFE-T Act, eliminating cash bail. That law took effect in Sept. 2023, and has had crushing consequences for crime victims across the city.
Diashun Dixson randomly attacked two Chicago men in May of that year. He was assessed $10,000 bail, but when the SAFE-T Act took effect, his lawyer successfully petitioned to have him released, according to Chicago CWB.
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Less than a month later, he randomly walked up to a 19-year-old college student doing schoolwork in Union Station and punched her in the face, breaking her nose and causing her to bleed profusely.
“You talk about whether or not criminals are gaming the system by taking advantage and exploiting this no-cash bond system, the SAFE-T Act, as it’s called. Absolutely,” Roy said. “They are professionals at what they do. They’re as professional at what they do – whether it’s committing armed robberies, burglaries, auto thefts, shootings – they’re just as good at doing that as the police are at doing their jobs, except there’s no constraints on the bad guys.”
In another cashless bail case, a Chicago man named Quijuan Waters, 21 at the time, allegedly shot another man in the face in December 2023, according to Chicago CWB. At the time, he was out on bail for a different shooting. Before that, he had been on probation for another shooting.
Progressive bail policies in Chicago were in effect well before the 2023 law, too. In 2017, Cook County, home to the city, implemented an “affordable bail” program, which also let violent suspects walk free while awaiting trials.
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In a disastrous case from 2019, Fabian Diaz, 17 at the time, was arrested for a gang-related shooting homicide just months after being released on bail in a juvenile gun possession case, CWB Chicago reported.
Diaz reportedly stepped out of a vehicle and fired at a 47-year-old man, killing him.
No-cash bail is hurting morale among Chicago’s police officers.
“It absolutely demoralizes them,” said Roy. “They come to work, they’re trying to do the right thing. They’re under so many restrictions. They are under the microscope constantly.”
“You know, they’re professionals. They understand it, but it’s still, it takes a toll on you,” he continued. “You think about it. It’s weighing on your mind. You second guess yourself. The last people we want second guessing themselves in a time of danger are police officers.
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