‘Eavesdropping’ rules head to Illinois governor

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Senate concurs with the House: Illinois needs protections for private communications. However, the issue of body cameras was not addressed in the legislation, something lawmakers say they plan on coming back to in the spring to address.

Senator Tim Bivins said police-worn body cameras must be addressed because of events in the past few months.

“We talked earlier on other bills about a sense of urgency,” he said. “If ever there was a sense of urgency in our country it’s right now and the body camera language needs to be addressed as soon as possible to protect not only our police officers but our citizens. Body cameras cut both ways, they can exonerate or they can indict and it’s important people are demanding and expecting this. It’s protection that we need.”

Bivins said delaying the discussion any further is a disservice. Sponsor in the senate Kwame Raoul says members of the House and Senate understand the urgency to address body cameras and they plan to do so under the new General Assembly beginning next month.

After the Illinois Supreme Court overturned Illinois’ decades old eavesdropping law, the new eavesdropping legislation passed the state Senate with only four voting “no.”