It’s been nearly one year since Bloomington Police Department [BPD] joined the Illinois State Police's Violent Crime Intelligence task force.
Under the March 2025 agreement, BPD assists state police in finding gun owners without a valid license.
The effort includes expired and revoked Firearm Owner Identification [FOID] cards and concealed carry licenses.
In Illinois, events such as an order of protection or a felony arrest automatically revokes the accused person's right to own and carry a gun. That can be appealed by the individual, according to the state police website.
“That’s another initiative that we are taking seriously,” said Jamal Simington, Bloomington’s police chief, in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
When BPD joined the task force last March, city staff estimated an average of 300 FOID revocations each year in Bloomington. In June, BPD was the only downstate agency awarded a grant aimed at assisting state police with FOID enforcement.
“We’re able to recoup or collect suspended or revoked FOID and concealed carry licenses from folks to the tune of about five a week,” Simington said.
Proactive enforcement
BPD responds to investigative leads from the state police, as well as residents they encounter during service calls or executing search warrants.
“We’re acting on actionable intelligence and leads to be able to do it and do it the right way and try to do it safely so it has not caused any harm or concern with the officers…” Simington said. “We know we have to deal with those people who act, I’ll say evil or evil-minded, and so our officers and our staff are well equipped to deal with that.”
The partnership allows for the department to bring in more illegal guns than before it started, as staffing did not allow it to be prioritized and FOID enforcement ultimately falls to state police. Simington said the task force has brought the average up.
“The impact is more evident this year and we’re still trying to fine tune it and make sure we are targeting the most dangerous of those folks. And for the most part, we have not had that concern, which is good,” he said.
Although BPD has brought in more guns tied to expired or revoked licenses than before the partnership, Simington said the department is not certain how many illegally possessed firearms are in Bloomington. He said the area reports “far less” than other major communities in the state.
“We know that there are illegal guns out in circulation, and so that alone will not prevent guns from being in the wrong hands,” Simington said. “But at least we know that those who had legally possessed guns and something triggered where they had to relinquish their FOID card…we are able to act on those.”
Simington said the department makes a clear distinction between those who have never been able to legally possess a gun because of criminal activity and those who had an event trigger a status change of their FOID card.
He said BPD is not committed to making the partnership a long-term project. He said if return on investment is good, the department would stay the course.
BPD is committed, though, to possible changes to the SAFE-T Act, which instituted cashless bail in Illinois. Simington said the department is working with the Illinois Law Enforcement Chiefs Association to advocate for changes to the law in Springfield in the name of reducing repeat offenders.
