For the first time since Peoria County State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos was appointed to the office in 2019, she faces a challenger from outside of her own party.
Peoria trial attorney Robert Boucher is running as a Republican in November’s General election. The third generation Peorian says the position is mainly one of leadership, and claims he’s a strong leader with administrative abilities.
Boucher calls his platform a “real simple" one: safe homes, safe schools and safe streets.
Democratic incumbent Jodi Hoos has survived primary challengers since her appointment to the position. She says, from the beginning, she’s “always been for law and order.”
Hoos says some of her accomplishments in her tenure include leading the office through COVID, holding juvenile offenders accountable for violent crimes and saving taxpayer money by regularly going under budget through cost-cutting innovations like electronic discovery.
Here’s where the candidates stand on some of the topics regularly discussed when it comes to crime in Peoria County.
Juvenile Crime
Crime committed by juveniles is frequently cited as a concern for law enforcement and city officials in Peoria County. According to the Peoria Police Department's annual report, arrests of juveniles increased by more than 30% from 2022 to 2023.
Community leaders have advocated for changes like harsher penalties for juveniles and their parents, but it’s unclear what, if anything, can be done without changing state law.
Boucher says he would advocate for the creation of a specialty court for juveniles, similar to the drug court that already exists in Peoria County. He envisions an intensive monitoring process pretrial and extensive probation requirements.
“To ensure, again, that they don’t commit future crimes, but really try to deal with the issue as to why did they commit this current crime?” Boucher said.
Hoos says her office is on the “backside” of the issue of juvenile crime. Her most effective measure against it is charging those accused of violent, serious crimes, she offers a 15-year-old committing an armed robbery as an example, as an adult.
Hoos estimates she’s charged almost 20 children as adults in the last two years.
“I think it’s a societal issue. How can we stop this on the front end?” she said. “You know, I do think there’s room to improve laws, to make it tougher for, probably the repeat individuals that are stealing cars. That’s very difficult for us because we are left with, at the end of the day, the judge, you know, our hands are tied.”
Violent Crime
According to statistics from the Peoria Police Department, gun violence and homicides are down in Peoria in 2024, when compared to 2023. In some categories, the drop is as much as 25 to 30 percent.
Hoos says, whatever the crime rates are, there have been record shootings and murders in Peoria since she took office. She acknowledges that the State’s Attorney could be perceived as playing some role in the frequency of crime, but pinning it entirely on any one person or agency is a mistake.
“Just like when it’s a high crime cycle, it’s not the police department or the State’s Attorney’s fault, when it’s a low crime cycle, I don’t think you can attribute it and give them praise either,” she said.
Many, including Boucher, have characterized crime in Peoria as “out of control.”
“I can’t deny that crime is high,” Hoos said. “But it’s not a Peoria issue. Crime is high everywhere. It’s not an Illinois issue. I mean, unfortunately, this is a society issue, right now. We have a lot of criminals that are, unfortunately, doing very violent crimes. And those that do, we’re keeping them where they belong.”
Boucher has a different view of the issue of violent crime. He believes the current State’s Attorney’s Office is an “absentee” position and lacks a strong deterrent for potential criminals in the county.
“I’ve noticed, whether other citizens have, we have people who are not even obeying traffic laws anymore,” said Boucher. “They are running red lights. And so those are the types of things that I’m talking about. The general deterrence being that, in our town, we’re not going to tolerate random acts of violence, and it has to be a situation where everyone is involved, not just our police agencies.”
Boucher argues that a city concerned about the potential for random acts of violence can’t progress in other areas, like business and education.
“I think it’s a basic civil right that citizens should be, should have a feeling of being safe and secure in their neighborhoods, on the campus, driving throughout town,” he said. “That’s just my belief.”
As far as suggestions for how he could build that deterrent as a State’s Attorney, Boucher suggested better coordination between area agencies. One example he offered is a bi-weekly Zoom meeting with all the police chiefs in the county.
Pretrial Detention and the SAFE-T Act
Robert Boucher believes there are some instances where violent offenders who should be detained pretrial are not. As an example, he uses the case of Brian Childers, a man who was granted pretrial release by a Peoria County judge and then denied it in Tazewell County.
“It’s just a difference in how the office is administered,” Boucher said. “My theory is going to be, and I’m going to carry a full load myself when I’m a State’s Attorney, which is different than what’s being, happening now. It may very well be that I’m going to handle the detention hearings myself.”
Boucher says his office would not file a petition to detain in every single detainable offense as a matter of course, but every case comes down to two factors to consider for him: propensity to flee and propensity to commit future offenses.
“That’s how I’m going to handle it,” he said.
State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos says her office, the Chief Judge, and local law enforcement agencies all worked effectively hand-in-hand to get the Pretrial Fairness and SAFE-T Acts implemented. She was also a part of a small group of State’s Attorneys who advised on the language in the final act.
“We made a much bigger net than what it had previously,’ she said. “The initial language to the SAFE-T Act didn’t include threes and fours, it really excluded some class two felonies too. So, major felonies we wouldn’t have even been able to detain.”
Hoos says, in her view, the act could still use some work. But she does not believe there are violent criminals being granted release in Peoria County who shouldn’t be.
“The difficult part…is our low level offenders, the repeat retail theft offenders, that just make it very hard for us to detain these people,” Hoos said. “And I think that’s where we could tweak some of the language.”
Hoos says there’s a lot of factors considered when deciding whether or not to file for detention. They include the extent of injuries, property damage, the defendant’s prior record and the strength of a case beyond initial probable cause for an arrest.
As for handling detention hearings herself, Hoos says it would be possible, there’s not much overlap, but she would consider it outside of the State’s Attorney’s role.
“I mean, theoretically, could I handle every traffic case? Maybe,” she said. “Could I handle every misdemeanor or domestic or felony case across three courtrooms? Probably not, but yeah, that, you know, that’s why I have leadership positions in my office, to handle those things.”
Qualifications
Jodi Hoos says she hopes her record will resonate with voters. She cites initiatives like a therapy dog for children, opioid settlement funds and the resurrection of an auto-crimes task force as evidence of her track record.
Hoos questions the qualifications of Robert Boucher for the State’s Attorney position.
“My opponent’s never prosecuted a single case, not one, not one,” Hoos said. “And I’m not sure, in the days where we have, you know, record murders and violent crime, as he always wants to say, I’m not sure somebody who’s never prosecuted a case is the person to lead an office.”
For his part, Boucher argues he has extensive experience in 43 years of practicing law as an attorney. The job, he says, is mainly one of leadership, and he questions Hoos’ leadership strategies.
“It’s like a train. I think the current State’s Attorney’s Office, they’re in the caboose, waiting for everything to be shifted to them,” Boucher said. “I intend to be driving the train, to where we start the process.”
Boucher claims another issue with the current office is high turnover, with young prosecutors leaving when they should be retained and developed.
Hoos acknowledges there have been around 15 retirements since she took office. But, she says short staffing is affecting every workplace and it’s not unusual for a young law school graduate to work in a prosecutor’s office for a few years before moving on to a firm.
Ultimately, voters will decide who they think is best equipped to be the county’s top law enforcement official.
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
