DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — Gulshan Rai has owned Ray's Laundromat for five years. Up until November, he never feared for his safety. 

"Some customer called me at 6:30 in the morning on the first of December and said my window was busted in," said Rai. The Decatur Police Department identified the suspect as 36-year-old Nathan McClure. 

McClure has burglary charges in 2015 and 2017, which led to him being sentenced to several years in prison. 

Ray's Laundromat has 16 security cameras as well as signs advising people that they are being recorded on the premises. The owner provided the video to the Decatur Police who arrested McClure. However, he was released under the new Pretrial Fairness Act. 

Rai repaired his exterior window and interior door on the 13th of December. That night, McClure broke in again. 

"This law should be abolished as quickly as possible because this person who has broken into my business has broken into another 14 other businesses," said Rai. "It is very, very disheartening to believe that this person is still on the street." 

McClure has 14 burglary charges in 2023. Rai says the man has burglarized several local businesses and caused more than $110,000 in damage. 

Decatur Police Chief Shane Brandel says this is an issue he expected when the Pretrial Fairness Act was passed. While he supports the aspects that hold the wealthy accountable for crimes instead of providing the opportunity for bail, he believes repeat offenders will continue to slip through the cracks. In the last year in Macon County, the rate of nearly every crime has dropped or stayed the same except for retail theft, which has skyrocketed. 

"We don't have any additional power to do anything other than what's given to us in terms of making the arrest, take them to jail to be processed and released," said Chief Brandel. "How do we adequately protect the community when the very people that are threatening it are just continually released back into the community to do the same thing they were doing?"

Chief Brandel says his officers are getting frustrated with constantly arresting the same people for the same charges and seeing them get released. He hopes the state legislature implements new measures to the act to address the constant issue law enforcement agencies are having across the state. 

Macon County State's Attorney Scott Reuter says the Pretrial Fairness Act has caused a lot of problems within the state. Because burglary is a non-detainable offense, Reuter says he doesn't have much power to keep offenders like McClure behind bars. 

"The legislature is determined there are some offenses that we cannot lock somebody up for until they commit enough of those crimes," said Reuter. "So if it's an offense that's not detainable, then we just are under a mandate that we cannot lock them up before they're convicted, until it's shown that their continued behavior is a danger to the community." 

WAND asked Reuter if McClure's criminal history as well as 14 recent burglary charges showed this danger to the community. Reuter responded that he made that argument in court and that the judge had to rule if the conditions or release and notices to appear that she had issued were a solid enough legal basis to agree with that finding.  

"We thought he would be detained but he was not because of that uncertainty about the law," said Reuter. "As a result, we have filed appeals of the judge's decision not to detain him." 

There is currently an arrest warrant out for McClure. Both Reuter and Brandel said a policy change is needed at the state level. Brandel said he has been encouraging victims and community members to reach out to their legislators to push for a change. Rai said he attempted to contact Representative Sue Scherer, but has not heard back from her office. 

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