Illinois General Assembly Revives Recording Ban
BY Herschel Smith9 years, 11 months ago
Earlier this year, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a state eavesdropping law that made it a crime for citizens to record conversations with police or anyone else without the other person’s permission. The court held that the old law “criminalize[d] a wide range of innocent conduct” and violated free-speech rights. In particular, the court noted the state could not criminalize recording activities where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, including citizens’ “public” encounters with police.
Now the old law is back, with just a few changes, in a new bill sent to the governor’s desk by the Illinois Senate on Dec. 4. The bill not only passed, but did so overwhelmingly with votes of 106-7 in the House on and 46-4-1 in the Senate.
The new version is nearly as bad as the old one.
Under the new bill, a citizen could rarely be sure whether recording any given conversation without permission is legal. The bill would make it a felony to surreptitiously record any “private conversation,” which it defines as any “oral communication between 2 or more persons,” where at least one person involved had a “reasonable expectation” of privacy.
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citizens can’t be expected to know for sure precisely which situations give rise to an “expectation of privacy” and which don’t. The Illinois Supreme Court said that police don’t have an expectation of privacy in “public” encounters with citizens, but it did not explain what counts as a “public” encounter. So if this bill becomes law, people who want to be sure to avoid jail time will refrain from recording police at all, and the law will therefore still effectively prevent people from recording police.
The bill would also discourage people from recording conversations with police by making unlawfully recording a conversation with police – or an attorney general, assistant attorney general, state’s attorney, assistant state’s attorney or judge – a class 3 felony, which carries a sentence of two to four years in prison. Meanwhile, the bill makes illegal recording of a private citizen a class 4 felony, which carries a lower sentencing range of one to three years in prison.
There’s only one apparent reason for imposing a higher penalty on people who record police in particular: to make people especially afraid to record police.
But I thought that we had a due process right to record police in the performance of their duties? In fact, I think judges have said so time and time again, and again, and again.
Instead of passing this stupid bill, they should have passed what reader Ned Weatherby calls Herschel’s Law.
On December 9, 2014 at 11:02 am, Lina Inverse said:
When taking my state’s CCW class, which was taught by active police officers, one had an fascinating anecdote about Illinois. He and perhaps others from a local force went there for some sort of joint operation, and when they started to unpack their wiretapping equipment, they were told by a local to put it away, all targets of eavesdropping in Illinois had to be informed of that within 30 days of the start. He finished by saying something to the effect of “At that point, I realized who ran the state”.
Also makes it clear why only the Feds seem to nail corrupt politicians in the state, they don’t operate under this restriction.
On December 9, 2014 at 12:11 pm, Bobbye said:
Well, things are looking up in Illinois. We finally found something every one, Democrat and Republican, can agree on.
On December 10, 2014 at 3:54 pm, Sur Mar said:
The State of Illinois clearly doesn’t trust the Citizens of the State with either guns or cameras; both are threat as far as the Government is concerned.
On December 10, 2014 at 4:10 pm, Barry Hirsh said:
Somebody should immediately file for declarative and injunctive relief before this monstrosity becomes law.