In late 2010, an opinion by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan affirmed that state law requires auxiliary police in Illinois (numbering about 1,000 auxiliary police officers and sheriff's deputies statewide) to be state-certified officers.

However, such actions were not approved by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, which caught the attention of authorities "investigating non-government, legally unrecognized reserve police organizations" viewed as potentially deceptive.

[4][5] The Chicago-based watchdog group Better Government Association criticized the practice of maintaining uncertified auxiliary police officers in Illinois and nationwide, writing, following a joint investigation in 2019 with WMAQ-TV: "Most of the time, this army of under-trained cops works without incident in low-risk tasks such as directing traffic or standing the rope line at parades.

"[6] The group pointed to a number of cases of misconduct by Illinois auxiliary officers over the previous decades, including some incidents that had led to towns settling legal claims brought against them due to auxiliary officers' misconduct.

[7] Captain Peter Pohl, the leader of the Reserves, was killed in a vehicle accident in Chicago on August 26, 2019.