Confusion relating to a change in the state’s eavesdropping law has some people up in arms. However, Senate Bill 1342, which was sent to Governor Quinn this week, is actually an improvement to what the Illinois Supreme Court recently determined was an unconstitutionally restrictive area of state law.
There has been a lot of discussion, particularly on social media, that Senate Bill 1342 will make it illegal to record a police officer, regardless of the circumstances. This is not the case.
The measure allows for the recording of on-duty law enforcement officials who are talking with the public as part of their job. The legislation simply prohibits the secret recording of anyone—including law enforcement—in a setting that someone would reasonably consider to be private.
Previously, Illinois’ eavesdropping law was too broad in scope. As formerly written, it was illegal to record anyone, in any context, without the consent of everyone involved. This was even true in situations where the conversations were clearly public in nature, or which were not intended to be private.
In response, last spring the Supreme Court ruled portions of the law were unconstitutional. As a result, the statute was negated, and all expectations of privacy with respect to eavesdropping or digital recording were stripped from the law. As a result all conversations, public or private, could be recorded without fear of penalty.
Senate Bill 1342, was introduced to rectify this flaw. The measure draws a distinction between a “private” conversation, and a conversation that cannot reasonably be considered private. In this way Senate Bill 1342 seeks to balance two competing interests: the interest of one party to record and later disclose a conversation, and the right of the other party to keep the conversation from being recorded without their consent, if they can reasonably expect the conversation to have been considered private.
So, Senate Bill 1342 does allow a citizen to record the non-private conversations of others, such as a government official giving a speech in front of a group, a loud public argument, or conversations taking place on the street, public places and events, stadiums, public gatherings, etc.
It is not known whether Gov. Quinn will sign the measure. However, even if Gov. Quinn does sign the legislation, it will still be legal for people in Illinois to record communications with on-duty police officers, as long as they do not hinder the officers’ capacity to do his or her job.