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* Subscribers knew about this development earlier in the week. Sen. Michael Noland sponsors the Senate Bill that was used as a vehicle for Rep. Elaine Nekritz’s “eavesdropping bill.” The proposal, which took months to craft, would decriminalize audio recording of on-duty police. Doing so is currently a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
* Noland told me that he thought the Nekritz bill was “bad law” and “superfluous.” He didn’t repeat those claims to other reporters, but check out what he wants to do…
Senate Bill 1808’s chief sponsor, Sen. Michael Noland, D-Elgin, wants to include a provision that would allow police officers to make audio recordings of citizens in public places. The proposal currently allows only members of the public to record officers.
“We don’t want an unfettered ability for law enforcement to record our citizens, but if they have probable cause … to approach somebody on the street,” Noland said. “If you’re approaching someone on the street with a video camera, there’s notice that the whole world is watching. When the whole world is watching, people tend to behave better.”
Noland is refusing to give up sponsorship of the bill, and he also is refusing to call it for a concurrence vote in the Senate. That means the bill is dead.
* The Illinois Press Association is not amused…
Noland’s suggestion also might be unconstitutional, said Josh Sharp, director of governmental relations for the Illinois Press Association. Sharp referred to Article 1, Section 6 of the Illinois Constitution, which states that people have the right to be protected against “invasions of privacy or interceptions of communications by eavesdropping devices or other means.”
“That makes it clear to me that police can’t have unlimited surveillance power,” Sharp said. “If we were to pass that bill (with Noland’s changes), it would be found unconstitutional.”
Sharp is absolutely spot on.
* Despite the fact that Noland thinks Nekritz’s bill is “bad law,” he wants to combine both ideas on a new vehicle…
Noland told Illinois Statehouse News he’s not stalling the bill, but he wants to “reconcile” the move with recent court rulings that deem the law unconstitutional, and add additional provisions to allow police to record civilians.
Josh Sharp is government relations director for the Illinois Press Association, a media and First Amendment group. He says courts are all but asking the General Assembly to address the issue. Three courts have found the law unconstitutional, but prosecutors can still try to enforce the current law, Sharp said, leaving it in limbo.
“There’s no reconciliation needed. The courts have said you cannot criminalize activity protected by the First Amendment,” Sharp said. “We’re just looking for an up or down vote on the bill as it passed the House.”
Noland said he thinks the bill could pass before the end of the legislative session next week.
The last time we discussed Sen. Noland was when he cribbed large passages from a John F. Kennedy speech during Senate debate. He’s not exactly the brightest porch light on the block.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, May 25, 12 @ 8:42 am
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and once Noland gets something in his mind - there is no changing it. So unfortunate.
Comment by collar observer Friday, May 25, 12 @ 8:45 am
Amazing how many “dim bulbs” can gum up the process in Springfield.
Comment by Pillory Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:11 am
Well, Noland knows how to hijack a bill …
Comment by Anonymous Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:12 am
Sen. Noland wants the police to be able to record you. I can’t imagine that would go over well in quite a few of his precincts. Probable cause is probable cause for most neighborhoods, but not all. Unless profiling of certain groups of people who are not likely to be able to afford adequate representation doesn’t happen anymore.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:18 am
In his best Boston accent, Sen. Noland respnds:
“When I was, uh, walking around Hyannasport, I uh, made it quite clear that, uh, police powers are, uh, good. I talked to Bobby about, uh, the bill, and I, uh, knew right then and there that, uh, Illinois was, uh, not ready for such a bill.”
Comment by Anonymous Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:20 am
9:12 & 9;20 are mine. Full disclosure … sorry
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:20 am
And to think, he replaced Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, who brought a lot to Springfield.
Comment by Pat Collins Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:25 am
==Noland is refusing to give up sponsorship of the bill, and he also is refusing to call it for a concurrence vote in the Senate. That means the bill is dead.==
Procedural question - what prevents another senator to sponsor a better bill to decriminalize audiorecording? There are, after all, 3 budget bills Is it that it wouldn’t get out of committee?
Comment by Robert Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:26 am
===Procedural question - what prevents another senator to sponsor a better bill to decriminalize audiorecording? ===
They’re running out of time and leadership is usually loathe to give members two different types of apple bites. We’ll see, though.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:34 am
O’Willy: Clever comment. We knew it was probably you.
Comment by mark walker Friday, May 25, 12 @ 9:51 am
When pressed why the bill was Hijacked, Sen. Noland, responded with what goals he had for the rest of session;
“I believe that this state should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this Spring Session is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Illinois.”
Noland, further touched on the General Assembly and Hijacking bills in the big picture …
“If we cannot end now our differences, at least I can make the state safe from eavesdropping. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this Great Capitol. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all up for re-election.”
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:03 am
He’s not that bright, I get that. But I’ve never understoon why allowing the police to video/audio record in public places is such a big deal. How is what you do on the street or sidewalk private?
Recording audio and video of all police stops and interactions with the public would probably keep them far more honest and would provide an accurate reocrd of any misconduct, theirs or the public’s, to resove any disupute.
Comment by Abby Normal Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:07 am
Want to debate the personal liberty vs. police protection issues of the bill? Great, then amend it or have some meetings and hash it out. Hijacking and killing a bill is so neanderthal. I expect nothing better from him of course.
Comment by Siriusly Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:10 am
===How is what you do on the street or sidewalk private? ===
So, you wouldn’t mind the police recording you walking down the sidewalk talking to a friend? Are you freaking serious?
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:10 am
Eich Bein Ein Police Stater.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:23 am
Nekritz hijacked Noland’s bill and promised him to come to agreement on keeping the playing field even btween public & police. She backstabbed Nolin - agreed to meeting to amend, then ran the bill before the meeting.
PS. Nekritz bill allows a bystander to tape the conversation of anyone speaking to the officer.
Comment by eyewitness Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:37 am
He won by what, about 500 votes in 2010?
A special thank you to the 251 of us giving the entire state an opportunity to deal with such inane behavior. Much obliged.
Comment by Freeman Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:41 am
@eyewitness, Elaine’s integrity is unparalleled. There is no chance that she “backstabbed” Noland. As others have stated, Sen. No Man’s Land is in his own little world and wouldn’t know an agreement if it slapped him in the face.
Sen. Noland, do the right thing. This can only get worse for you. If you think the press, your constituents and citizens of this state facing up to 15 years in prison will forget about this sad maneuver, you’re wrong.
Comment by Do The Right Thing Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:56 am
====How is what you do on the street or sidewalk private? ===
So, you wouldn’t mind the police recording you walking down the sidewalk talking to a friend? Are you freaking serious?=
Mixing issues here. One party consent would allow a person who is part of the sidewalk conversation to audio record it. The police listening in and recording on that same conversation without the consent of either party is an entirely different matter.
I’m in favor of allowing citizens to record the audio of uniformed police action taking place in public areas. I also wish Illinois had one party consent. We would be a little less reliant on the feds to clean our messes up.
Comment by Leave a Light on George Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:58 am
“Nekritz bill allows a bystander to tape the conversation of anyone speaking to the officer.”
That sounds like a good thing to me. In reality, if a cop is questioning me, I’m not likely to be able to stop, start my iPhone and tape the conversation. A bystander would need to do it.
Comment by ChicagoR Friday, May 25, 12 @ 10:59 am
Hope Noland reads these comments, becausegis stance on this just cost him a vote. I’ve held my nose and voted for this doofus in the past, but I certainly won’t now.
Hope he ends up losing by exactly one vote.
Comment by TJ Friday, May 25, 12 @ 11:05 am
I understood that Cullerton provided the vehicle bill for Nekritz.
Bill hijacking ought to be outlawed in the Senate (Madigan doesn’t allow it in the House).
The effect of Noland’s action is to prolong the status quo where it’s a felony to tape record a cop in public. Indefensible.
Comment by reformer Friday, May 25, 12 @ 11:53 am
With video cameras in every phone and on most buildings I figure everything I do on a public way is being recorded anyway. And based on some of the “private” conversations I’ve overheard on public transportation, I don’t think many people care who overhears them - although I wish they did.
Leave a light on makes a good point about one party consent. That was the second point I was trying to make. Thanks for clarifying.
Comment by Abby Normal Friday, May 25, 12 @ 1:03 pm
sorry Nekritz fans - she is the original offender on this one….and leadership knows it. If you want to hold onto the rungs you got boosted up to this year, you gotta keep to your word when given.
Comment by eyewitness Friday, May 25, 12 @ 2:26 pm
–If you want to hold onto the rungs you got boosted up to this year, you gotta keep to your word when given.–
She gave her word to push unconstitutional police audio surveillance without probable cause or warrant?
Comment by wordslinger Friday, May 25, 12 @ 2:45 pm
Senator Noland, please quit commenting under the tag “eyewitness”. We all know it’s you, you are not fooling anyone.
I can’t believe there can possibly be two different people in Illinois dumb enough to try to defend this d-bag move by blaming Rep. Nekritz for it.
Comment by Lester Hotl's Mustache Friday, May 25, 12 @ 3:04 pm
Abby Normal is probably comfortable with the patriot act. I am not. There is no place in the world that I want to go to that will ever
convince me to give up my privacy rights to fly in a commercial airplane.
I do agree that surveillance cameras do see a lot of stuff that we are unaware of, and a lot of people take pictures or videos with phones. Illegal, no, posting it on the internet without consent-probably should be.
Comment by downstate commissioner Friday, May 25, 12 @ 4:04 pm