Rockford Sun

An Illinois legislator said that an "unfortunate circumstance" led him to pitch legislation that allowed drunk drivers to face felony charges when an accident resulted in injury or death to police or service animals. 

Lawmakers approved House Bill 3019 72 to 26 April 15 to make it a class 4 felony instead of class A misdemeanor when a DUI accident results in "severe injury or death of a police animal, service animal, accelerant detection dog or search and rescue dog." 

"This was brought to me by the state attorney in my district,” Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford) said April 15. “An unfortunate circumstance involving a drunk driver hit a police safety vehicle instantly killing a rescue canine that was within the vehicle. Unfortunately, what came out of this was that there's actually nothing that could be charged to that particular drunk driver."

When asked by Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) about HB 3019's amendments to Illinois Vehicle Code, Sosnowski clarified that the bill "would allow a driver under the influence who committed a violation of hitting and causing the death of a police service animal such as a dog search and rescue dog, to be charged. This adds killing a service animal to a chargeable offense."

Sosnowski also emphasized how the death of police service animals can impact law enforcement; thus, he called on his colleagues for an Aye vote so that "the death of a police service animal or a search and rescue dog would be added to those provisions able to be charged."