Keith Calloway, Executive Director | JB Pritzker, Governor
Board Adopts Ten Shared Principles
At the June 1st Board Meeting, the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board officially signed on to the Ten Shared Principles of the NAACP and the Illinois Chiefs Association. This commitment to treat all with dignity and respect while rejecting all forms of discrimination was unanimously approved and signed by all in a special ceremony in Tinley Park. While hundreds of agencies have already adopted these shared principles, ILETSB is one of the first state agencies to do so. Chairman Davis encouraged the academies and MTUs to adopt the principles as well as demonstrate the law enforcement community’s commitment through all forms of training.

Board Members adopts Ten Shared Principles

Photo Credit: Attorney General's Office

NOW BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board and its individual members, meeting in Tinley Park, Illinois, adopt these same Ten Shared Principles as their own, and thereby add their names to the historic agreement between the Illinois NAACP and the ILACP.  These are the Ten Shared Principles:

  1. We value the life of every person and consider life to be the highest value.
  2. All persons should be treated with dignity and respect. This is another foundational value.
  3. We reject discrimination toward any person that is based on race, ethnicity, religion, color, nationality, immigrant status, sexual orientation, gender, disability, or familial status.
  4. We endorse the six pillars in the report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The first pillar is to build and rebuild trust through procedural justice, transparency, accountability, and honest recognition of past and present obstacles.
  5. We endorse the four pillars of procedural justice, which are fairness, voice (i.e., an opportunity for citizens and police to believe they are heard), transparency, and impartiality.
  6. We endorse the values inherent in community policing, which includes community partnerships involving law enforcement, engagement of police officers with residents outside of interaction specific to enforcement of laws, and problem-solving that is collaborative, not one-sided.
  7. We believe that developing strong ongoing relationships between law enforcement and communities of color at the leadership level and street level will be the keys to diminishing and eliminating racial tension.
  8. We believe that law enforcement and community leaders have a mutual responsibility to encourage all citizens to gain a better understanding and knowledge of the law to assist them in their interactions with law enforcement officers.
  9. We support diversity in police departments and in the law enforcement profession. Law enforcement and communities have a mutual responsibility and should work together to make a concerted effort to recruit diverse police departments.
  10. We believe de-escalation training should be required to ensure the safety of community members and officers. We endorse using de-escalation tactics to reduce the potential for confrontations that endanger law enforcement officers and community members; and the principle that human life should be taken only as a last resort.