An annual report released this month by Peoria County State’s Attorney's Office offers a statistical look at criminal justice in 2025.
Highlights include charges being filed in all 12 of the year’s homicides, a 40% decrease in drug charges, and more than 350 juvenile cases filed.
State's Attorney Jodi Hoos said the report offers a snapshot look at their side of the local system, emphasizing parts of the process many people don't see.
WCBU reporter Joe Deacon talks with Hoos about what she views as the successes of her department in the past year.
This transcript has been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Your office recently released its annual report for 2025, and it outlines what you’ve described as a “success story” in achieving justice for residents of Peoria County. What do you view as the biggest indication of success?
Jodi Hoos: I think any time we can hold a defendant accountable for the victims of crime. At the end of the day, that’s who we represent. We represent the victims and society in general, and I think we are successful in helping those victims through the court process, especially on the higher-end offenses, murder offenses.
Every murder that was committed last year, we charged. Some of those cases are still working their way through the court system, but I think we’ve been very successful in prosecuting on the top end of murders, shootings, home invasions, cases like that. And even though it’s a terrible tragedy, obviously, that the victims and their families have to go through, hopefully at the end of that road, we can give them a little bit of justice.
One of the biggest topics that’s getting a lot of attention in the community is juvenile justice, and the possible need for juvenile justice reform. Earlier this month, we had a significant incident that prompted Peoria Police Chief Eric Echeverria to advocate for change so that youthful offenders aren’t continually causing problems. How do you feel your office is handling juvenile crime, and what changes do you think are needed?
Hoos: Yeah, it’s tough. As you can see in our annual report, we charged nine juveniles with first-degree murder last year. That’s incredible, and really that’s a society problem. I say that all the time; if a juvenile case comes across my desk, then we’ve already failed as a society.
But we have been calling for change for a long time now. The laws that were written were written nearly 40 years ago, when the biggest crime a kid would do is steal a candy bar from the local gas station. Now they’re picking up guns and shooting people, and the laws need to reflect that. We need to adapt and change with the times.
We’re trying everything that we can on the juvenile side. We are filing petitions for extended jurisdiction. We are doing motions to transfer to adult court. I remember when I first started as a young assistant state’s attorney, back in 2000, we hardly had any juveniles that were charged with murder or even serious offenses. I can think of one or two over the course of the first 15 years I was a prosecutor. Now, we do 10 a year. I mean, that’s an incredible uptick that the laws have just not adapted to.
The annual report shows 24 juveniles charged in adult felony court last year, as well as a 28% decrease in overall juvenile justice charges and a 38% drop in vehicle theft-related charges — but a slight increase in weapons-related offenses. What do those trends suggest to you?
Hoos: One thing, our stolen motor vehicle crimes are actually down, and I think that’s a direct correlation to the [Greater Peoria] Auto Crimes Task Force that we put together a couple years ago. Those trends continue to decrease because we have a little bit more boots on the street and can get those individuals quicker.
The increase is obviously the violent crime. Our juvenile violent crime, as you indicated those numbers, the cases that we file to transfer to adult court, the murder cases that we file, the shootings, the armed robberies, those have been a steady increase for the last 3-5 years.
We also hear often from law enforcement leaders about problems with the SAFE-T Act, and particularly with pretrial detention. The annual report shows 80% of the pretrial detentions your office requested were granted. But what have you heard from law enforcement? Do you think the system needs to be improved, and if so, how?
Hoos: There’s certainly changes that we need to make, and the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association has been advocating for those for really since the inception. The one thing that the SAFE-T Act does a good job of is holding high-level offenders in custody. So for the most part, [if] you commit first degree murder, you’re going to stay in custody. That’s a good thing.
Where the SAFE-T Act needs some changes are the low-level offenders, so the misdemeanor offenses or low-level felony offenses: the retail theft, the serial trespassers. Those cases, as you can see in our annual report, we had between a 30-45% increase in those low-level crimes, and it’s because individuals are not being held in custody.
They’re getting right back out onto the street and committing that same offense again. So, we have a number of individuals who have been charged with several retail thefts, several criminal trespasses, just because we are not able to hold them in custody. And I think that’s where the SAFE-T Act is really lacking any teeth.
Looking at other overall trends, the report shows a 40% drop in felony drug charges, a 16% drop in weapons charges, and a 23% increase in theft charges. On the whole, that suggests improvement. But many types of misdemeanor cases spiked. So how do you refute a common perception that crime is still rampant around Peoria?
Hoos: Well, overall, crime is down. But obviously, there are certain areas that are still problems. We still have, as I mentioned, the violent juvenile offenders.
One of the facts there on the drug cases, I want to point out that that’s where specialty courts are very valuable. And if you look at our success rate in the specialty — so, when I say “specialty courts,” I’m referring to our veterans court, our DUI, drug and alcohol courts, as well as our mental health court, and soon to be our juvenile specialty court also — we had 100% success rate last year.
I think we had 47, 45-47, participants, somewhere around there, and not a single one of them committed a new offense. That’s incredible, and I think we need to continue to look to those types of programs for certain types of offenses, because they are successful.
You led right into my next question, actually, is the success of the problem-solving courts. Could you kind of explain what the problem-solving courts are and the intent of the programs, and why you think it’s such a wise approach?
Hoos: Yeah, the specialty or problem-solving courts — we refer to them as specialty courts — are for those low-level offenders that really need some extra help. They’re struggling with mental health issues, they’re struggling with drug or alcohol problems, or maybe they’re a veteran and they have PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] from their service and they really need extra, more intensive supervision.
The courts are designed to give them that through probation, as well as some community service organizations that really have more of a hands-on approach with these individuals. And if they do successfully complete the program, then at the end of the day, their case is either — it could be dismissed, it could be reduced charges, any number of things, depending on the case. But it’s really a path to get them to be successful citizens and not re-offend.
This annual report, there’s several pages to it and a lot of information contained inside. Is there anything else you’d like to mention that we haven’t already discussed?
Hoos: Well, I just want to point out the reason we did this is, I think we’re very good at pointing out the arrest — you know, when a crime happens and it’s the hot topic of the day, it’s all over the media. I think we’re good on the front end, and I think we’re good on the back end — you know, a trial is held or a sentencing is held, and the media reports that.
But there’s a whole lot in the middle that goes on every single day at the Peoria County Courthouse, and every single day by members of my office where we’re trying to help victims and trying to help witnesses and truly find justice for those people. So, the purpose of this report is to highlight all those things.
We assisted nearly 1,000 individuals in the courtroom last year. That’s a lot of people that come through the doors of the county courthouse, and not just for jury duty and not just to pay their taxes. Our investigators, our family justice center, our children’s advocacy center, all of these are divisions of our office that most people have probably never heard of and don’t know exist.
And that’s the point of this report, to just educate the public on all those other parts in the middle of the justice system.
