Illinois General Assembly Revives Recording Ban —Police can record you, but you can’t record Police
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.
More: Illinois General Assembly Revives Recording Ban
ALSO SEE:
PDF -SENATE BILL 1342 (ILLINOIS)
ACLU -Eavesdropping Bill Passes in Illinois
Free Thought Project: - Illinois Just Made it a Felony for Its Citizens to Record the Police and the Media is Silent
No, Illinois didn’t ban recordings of cops — but they did get more power to eavesdrop on you http://t.co/GgpdWjMXeu— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 10, 2014