Law Enforcement Wants To Expand Eavesdropping Privileges
By aaroncynic in News on Apr 5, 2012 1:30PM
Last month, the Illinois House killed an amendment to the state's eavesdropping law which would have allowed citizens to record on duty police officers in public spaces. The bill would have added some level of protection to citizen journalists and other passersby who might choose to record an incident playing out on a public street. Currently, violating the Illinois Eavesdropping law is a class one felony. In addition to this, current legislation also requires undercover police officers who wish to record suspected drug dealers get approval from a judge, unless in an “emergency situation.”
Now, the Illinois House wants to amend that portion of the legislation to allow law enforcement to record a suspect without a judge's order.
The Chicago Tribune reports Terry Lemming, president of the Illinois Drug Enforcement Officers Association, said that many undercover officers choose not to record their conversations with a suspected drug dealer, rather than get a judge's approval. According to Lemming, the time it takes to get a court order could jeopardize an officer's safety. He told the Trib:
“When I was working undercover, I didn't see the sense in spending all these hours drafting a court order when I could have already gone out and arrested a guy selling on the corner right there, and I think that's the feeling of many narcotics officers.”
Civil liberties experts however, say that eliminating the need for a court order is a slippery slope. For now, law enforcement is only seeking the right to record without a court order for suspected drug dealers, but that could set a precedent for secretly recording in a variety of other cases. Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois told the Trib “We're trading off privacy, and there doesn't appear to be any real gain in the meantime.”