{"id":949,"date":"2023-05-17T07:33:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T12:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/?p=949"},"modified":"2023-05-18T07:33:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T12:33:57","slug":"rep-stephens-recognizes-national-police-week-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/rep-stephens-recognizes-national-police-week-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Stephens Recognizes National Police Week 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During National Police Week 2023, State Representative Brad Stephens (R-Rosemont) is recognizing 20<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0District police officers for their commitment and service to their communities. This week allows law enforcement, survivors, and citizens to pay homage to those who gave their lives in the line of duty. It began in 1962 with President John F. Kennedy signing a proclamation to designate May 15<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecently, the 20<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0District and Chicago communities have suffered from the loss of two heroes in the Chicago Police Department by gunfire\u2014Officer Andres Vasquez Lasso and Officer Ar\u00e9anah Preston,\u201d said Rep. Stephens. \u201cThis Police Week, we offer our hearts and prayers to the loved ones of these courageous officers and commit to backing the badge for all Illinois officers and police departments. Thank you, Illinois law enforcement officers, for all you give, sacrifice, and commit to keep our communities safe. You are appreciated by the people you serve and your neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There have been 42 line of duty deaths in the United States in 2023, and two in Illinois being Officer Vasquez Lasso (End of Watch: March 1, 2023) and Officer Preston (EOW: May 6, 2023). Of these 42 deaths, 19 were from gunfire. According to a May 2022 report from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, research suggests \u201cpolice work can have a profound effect on officers\u201d including actions taken or not taken while on the job, trauma resulting from exposure to human suffering and violence, and a relationship between years of service and mental health problems.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Stephens has co-sponsored many police-focused bills in the General Assembly, including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ilga.gov\/legislation\/billstatus.asp?DocNum=3162&amp;GAID=17&amp;GA=103&amp;DocTypeID=HB&amp;LegID=148316&amp;SessionID=112\">House Bill 3162<\/a>, of which he was a chief co-sponsor. This legislation will establish a presumption that Chicago police officers who obtained a disability from contracting COVID-19 were injured in the line of duty. It also entitles them to duty disability benefits. This bill became law on May 10<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Stephens serves on the House Police &amp; Fire Committee and has since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During National Police Week 2023, State Representative Brad Stephens (R-Rosemont) is recognizing 20th\u00a0District police officers for their commitment and service to their communities. This week allows law enforcement, survivors, and citizens to pay homage to those who gave their lives in the line of duty. It began in 1962 with President John F. Kennedy signing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/repbradstephens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}