Bill Text: IL HB5342 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Eliminates the sunset of the exemption from an eavesdropping violation that provides with prior request to and written or verbal approval of the State's Attorney of the county in which the conversation is anticipated to occur, recording or listening with the aid of an eavesdropping device to a conversation in which a law enforcement officer, or any person acting at the direction of a law enforcement officer, is a party to the conversation and has consented to the conversation being intercepted or recorded in the course of an investigation of a qualified offense as specified in the statute. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-18 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB5342 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-HB5342-Introduced.html

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102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2021 and 2022 HB5342 Introduced , by Rep. Patrick Windhorst SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
720 ILCS 5/14-3
Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Eliminates the sunset of the exemption from an eavesdropping violation that provides with prior request to and written or verbal approval of the State's Attorney of the county in which the conversation is anticipated to occur, recording or listening with the aid of an eavesdropping device to a conversation in which a law enforcement officer, or any person acting at the direction of a law enforcement officer, is a party to the conversation and has consented to the conversation being intercepted or recorded in the course of an investigation of a qualified offense as specified in the statute. Effective immediately.
LRB102 24784 RLC 34027 b
A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning criminal law.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Criminal Code of 2012 is amended by
changing Section 14-3 as follows:
(720 ILCS 5/14-3)
Sec. 14-3. Exemptions. The following activities shall be
exempt from the provisions of this Article:
(a) Listening to radio, wireless electronic
communications, and television communications of any sort
where the same are publicly made;
(b) Hearing conversation when heard by employees of
any common carrier by wire incidental to the normal course
of their employment in the operation, maintenance or
repair of the equipment of such common carrier by wire so
long as no information obtained thereby is used or
divulged by the hearer;
(c) Any broadcast by radio, television or otherwise
whether it be a broadcast or recorded for the purpose of
later broadcasts of any function where the public is in
attendance and the conversations are overheard incidental
to the main purpose for which such broadcasts are then
being made;

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(d) Recording or listening with the aid of any device
to any emergency communication made in the normal course
of operations by any federal, state or local law
enforcement agency or institutions dealing in emergency
services, including, but not limited to, hospitals,
clinics, ambulance services, fire fighting agencies, any
public utility, emergency repair facility, civilian
defense establishment or military installation;
(e) Recording the proceedings of any meeting required
to be open by the Open Meetings Act, as amended;
(f) Recording or listening with the aid of any device
to incoming telephone calls of phone lines publicly listed
or advertised as consumer "hotlines" by manufacturers or
retailers of food and drug products. Such recordings must
be destroyed, erased or turned over to local law
enforcement authorities within 24 hours from the time of
such recording and shall not be otherwise disseminated.
Failure on the part of the individual or business
operating any such recording or listening device to comply
with the requirements of this subsection shall eliminate
any civil or criminal immunity conferred upon that
individual or business by the operation of this Section;
(g) With prior notification to the State's Attorney of
the county in which it is to occur, recording or listening
with the aid of any device to any conversation where a law
enforcement officer, or any person acting at the direction

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of law enforcement, is a party to the conversation and has
consented to it being intercepted or recorded under
circumstances where the use of the device is necessary for
the protection of the law enforcement officer or any
person acting at the direction of law enforcement, in the
course of an investigation of a forcible felony, a felony
offense of involuntary servitude, involuntary sexual
servitude of a minor, or trafficking in persons under
Section 10-9 of this Code, an offense involving
prostitution, solicitation of a sexual act, or pandering,
a felony violation of the Illinois Controlled Substances
Act, a felony violation of the Cannabis Control Act, a
felony violation of the Methamphetamine Control and
Community Protection Act, any "streetgang related" or
"gang-related" felony as those terms are defined in the
Illinois Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act, or
any felony offense involving any weapon listed in
paragraphs (1) through (11) of subsection (a) of Section
24-1 of this Code. Any recording or evidence derived as
the result of this exemption shall be inadmissible in any
proceeding, criminal, civil or administrative, except (i)
where a party to the conversation suffers great bodily
injury or is killed during such conversation, or (ii) when
used as direct impeachment of a witness concerning matters
contained in the interception or recording. The Director
of the Illinois State Police shall issue regulations as

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are necessary concerning the use of devices, retention of
tape recordings, and reports regarding their use;
(g-5) (Blank);
(g-6) With approval of the State's Attorney of the
county in which it is to occur, recording or listening
with the aid of any device to any conversation where a law
enforcement officer, or any person acting at the direction
of law enforcement, is a party to the conversation and has
consented to it being intercepted or recorded in the
course of an investigation of child pornography,
aggravated child pornography, indecent solicitation of a
child, luring of a minor, sexual exploitation of a child,
aggravated criminal sexual abuse in which the victim of
the offense was at the time of the commission of the
offense under 18 years of age, or criminal sexual abuse by
force or threat of force in which the victim of the offense
was at the time of the commission of the offense under 18
years of age. In all such cases, an application for an
order approving the previous or continuing use of an
eavesdropping device must be made within 48 hours of the
commencement of such use. In the absence of such an order,
or upon its denial, any continuing use shall immediately
terminate. The Director of the Illinois State Police shall
issue rules as are necessary concerning the use of
devices, retention of recordings, and reports regarding
their use. Any recording or evidence obtained or derived

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in the course of an investigation of child pornography,
aggravated child pornography, indecent solicitation of a
child, luring of a minor, sexual exploitation of a child,
aggravated criminal sexual abuse in which the victim of
the offense was at the time of the commission of the
offense under 18 years of age, or criminal sexual abuse by
force or threat of force in which the victim of the offense
was at the time of the commission of the offense under 18
years of age shall, upon motion of the State's Attorney or
Attorney General prosecuting any case involving child
pornography, aggravated child pornography, indecent
solicitation of a child, luring of a minor, sexual
exploitation of a child, aggravated criminal sexual abuse
in which the victim of the offense was at the time of the
commission of the offense under 18 years of age, or
criminal sexual abuse by force or threat of force in which
the victim of the offense was at the time of the commission
of the offense under 18 years of age be reviewed in camera
with notice to all parties present by the court presiding
over the criminal case, and, if ruled by the court to be
relevant and otherwise admissible, it shall be admissible
at the trial of the criminal case. Absent such a ruling,
any such recording or evidence shall not be admissible at
the trial of the criminal case;
(h) Recordings made simultaneously with the use of an
in-car video camera recording of an oral conversation

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between a uniformed peace officer, who has identified his
or her office, and a person in the presence of the peace
officer whenever (i) an officer assigned a patrol vehicle
is conducting an enforcement stop; or (ii) patrol vehicle
emergency lights are activated or would otherwise be
activated if not for the need to conceal the presence of
law enforcement.
For the purposes of this subsection (h), "enforcement
stop" means an action by a law enforcement officer in
relation to enforcement and investigation duties,
including but not limited to, traffic stops, pedestrian
stops, abandoned vehicle contacts, motorist assists,
commercial motor vehicle stops, roadside safety checks,
requests for identification, or responses to requests for
emergency assistance;
(h-5) Recordings of utterances made by a person while
in the presence of a uniformed peace officer and while an
occupant of a police vehicle including, but not limited
to, (i) recordings made simultaneously with the use of an
in-car video camera and (ii) recordings made in the
presence of the peace officer utilizing video or audio
systems, or both, authorized by the law enforcement
agency;
(h-10) Recordings made simultaneously with a video
camera recording during the use of a taser or similar
weapon or device by a peace officer if the weapon or device

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is equipped with such camera;
(h-15) Recordings made under subsection (h), (h-5), or
(h-10) shall be retained by the law enforcement agency
that employs the peace officer who made the recordings for
a storage period of 90 days, unless the recordings are
made as a part of an arrest or the recordings are deemed
evidence in any criminal, civil, or administrative
proceeding and then the recordings must only be destroyed
upon a final disposition and an order from the court.
Under no circumstances shall any recording be altered or
erased prior to the expiration of the designated storage
period. Upon completion of the storage period, the
recording medium may be erased and reissued for
operational use;
(i) Recording of a conversation made by or at the
request of a person, not a law enforcement officer or
agent of a law enforcement officer, who is a party to the
conversation, under reasonable suspicion that another
party to the conversation is committing, is about to
commit, or has committed a criminal offense against the
person or a member of his or her immediate household, and
there is reason to believe that evidence of the criminal
offense may be obtained by the recording;
(j) The use of a telephone monitoring device by either
(1) a corporation or other business entity engaged in
marketing or opinion research or (2) a corporation or

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other business entity engaged in telephone solicitation,
as defined in this subsection, to record or listen to oral
telephone solicitation conversations or marketing or
opinion research conversations by an employee of the
corporation or other business entity when:
(i) the monitoring is used for the purpose of
service quality control of marketing or opinion
research or telephone solicitation, the education or
training of employees or contractors engaged in
marketing or opinion research or telephone
solicitation, or internal research related to
marketing or opinion research or telephone
solicitation; and
(ii) the monitoring is used with the consent of at
least one person who is an active party to the
marketing or opinion research conversation or
telephone solicitation conversation being monitored.
No communication or conversation or any part, portion,
or aspect of the communication or conversation made,
acquired, or obtained, directly or indirectly, under this
exemption (j), may be, directly or indirectly, furnished
to any law enforcement officer, agency, or official for
any purpose or used in any inquiry or investigation, or
used, directly or indirectly, in any administrative,
judicial, or other proceeding, or divulged to any third
party.

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When recording or listening authorized by this
subsection (j) on telephone lines used for marketing or
opinion research or telephone solicitation purposes
results in recording or listening to a conversation that
does not relate to marketing or opinion research or
telephone solicitation; the person recording or listening
shall, immediately upon determining that the conversation
does not relate to marketing or opinion research or
telephone solicitation, terminate the recording or
listening and destroy any such recording as soon as is
practicable.
Business entities that use a telephone monitoring or
telephone recording system pursuant to this exemption (j)
shall provide current and prospective employees with
notice that the monitoring or recordings may occur during
the course of their employment. The notice shall include
prominent signage notification within the workplace.
Business entities that use a telephone monitoring or
telephone recording system pursuant to this exemption (j)
shall provide their employees or agents with access to
personal-only telephone lines which may be pay telephones,
that are not subject to telephone monitoring or telephone
recording.
For the purposes of this subsection (j), "telephone
solicitation" means a communication through the use of a
telephone by live operators:

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(i) soliciting the sale of goods or services;
(ii) receiving orders for the sale of goods or
services;
(iii) assisting in the use of goods or services;
or
(iv) engaging in the solicitation, administration,
or collection of bank or retail credit accounts.
For the purposes of this subsection (j), "marketing or
opinion research" means a marketing or opinion research
interview conducted by a live telephone interviewer
engaged by a corporation or other business entity whose
principal business is the design, conduct, and analysis of
polls and surveys measuring the opinions, attitudes, and
responses of respondents toward products and services, or
social or political issues, or both;
(k) Electronic recordings, including but not limited
to, a motion picture, videotape, digital, or other visual
or audio recording, made of a custodial interrogation of
an individual at a police station or other place of
detention by a law enforcement officer under Section
5-401.5 of the Juvenile Court Act of 1987 or Section
103-2.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963;
(l) Recording the interview or statement of any person
when the person knows that the interview is being
conducted by a law enforcement officer or prosecutor and
the interview takes place at a police station that is

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currently participating in the Custodial Interview Pilot
Program established under the Illinois Criminal Justice
Information Act;
(m) An electronic recording, including but not limited
to, a motion picture, videotape, digital, or other visual
or audio recording, made of the interior of a school bus
while the school bus is being used in the transportation
of students to and from school and school-sponsored
activities, when the school board has adopted a policy
authorizing such recording, notice of such recording
policy is included in student handbooks and other
documents including the policies of the school, notice of
the policy regarding recording is provided to parents of
students, and notice of such recording is clearly posted
on the door of and inside the school bus.
Recordings made pursuant to this subsection (m) shall
be confidential records and may only be used by school
officials (or their designees) and law enforcement
personnel for investigations, school disciplinary actions
and hearings, proceedings under the Juvenile Court Act of
1987, and criminal prosecutions, related to incidents
occurring in or around the school bus;
(n) Recording or listening to an audio transmission
from a microphone placed by a person under the authority
of a law enforcement agency inside a bait car surveillance
vehicle while simultaneously capturing a photographic or

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video image;
(o) The use of an eavesdropping camera or audio device
during an ongoing hostage or barricade situation by a law
enforcement officer or individual acting on behalf of a
law enforcement officer when the use of such device is
necessary to protect the safety of the general public,
hostages, or law enforcement officers or anyone acting on
their behalf;
(p) Recording or listening with the aid of any device
to incoming telephone calls of phone lines publicly listed
or advertised as the "CPS Violence Prevention Hotline",
but only where the notice of recording is given at the
beginning of each call as required by Section 34-21.8 of
the School Code. The recordings may be retained only by
the Chicago Police Department or other law enforcement
authorities, and shall not be otherwise retained or
disseminated;
(q)(1) With prior request to and written or verbal
approval of the State's Attorney of the county in which
the conversation is anticipated to occur, recording or
listening with the aid of an eavesdropping device to a
conversation in which a law enforcement officer, or any
person acting at the direction of a law enforcement
officer, is a party to the conversation and has consented
to the conversation being intercepted or recorded in the
course of an investigation of a qualified offense. The

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State's Attorney may grant this approval only after
determining that reasonable cause exists to believe that
inculpatory conversations concerning a qualified offense
will occur with a specified individual or individuals
within a designated period of time.
(2) Request for approval. To invoke the exception
contained in this subsection (q), a law enforcement
officer shall make a request for approval to the
appropriate State's Attorney. The request may be written
or verbal; however, a written memorialization of the
request must be made by the State's Attorney. This request
for approval shall include whatever information is deemed
necessary by the State's Attorney but shall include, at a
minimum, the following information about each specified
individual whom the law enforcement officer believes will
commit a qualified offense:
(A) his or her full or partial name, nickname or
alias;
(B) a physical description; or
(C) failing either (A) or (B) of this paragraph
(2), any other supporting information known to the law
enforcement officer at the time of the request that
gives rise to reasonable cause to believe that the
specified individual will participate in an
inculpatory conversation concerning a qualified
offense.

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(3) Limitations on approval. Each written approval by
the State's Attorney under this subsection (q) shall be
limited to:
(A) a recording or interception conducted by a
specified law enforcement officer or person acting at
the direction of a law enforcement officer;
(B) recording or intercepting conversations with
the individuals specified in the request for approval,
provided that the verbal approval shall be deemed to
include the recording or intercepting of conversations
with other individuals, unknown to the law enforcement
officer at the time of the request for approval, who
are acting in conjunction with or as co-conspirators
with the individuals specified in the request for
approval in the commission of a qualified offense;
(C) a reasonable period of time but in no event
longer than 24 consecutive hours;
(D) the written request for approval, if
applicable, or the written memorialization must be
filed, along with the written approval, with the
circuit clerk of the jurisdiction on the next business
day following the expiration of the authorized period
of time, and shall be subject to review by the Chief
Judge or his or her designee as deemed appropriate by
the court.
(3.5) The written memorialization of the request for

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approval and the written approval by the State's Attorney
may be in any format, including via facsimile, email, or
otherwise, so long as it is capable of being filed with the
circuit clerk.
(3.10) Beginning March 1, 2015, each State's Attorney
shall annually submit a report to the General Assembly
disclosing:
(A) the number of requests for each qualified
offense for approval under this subsection; and
(B) the number of approvals for each qualified
offense given by the State's Attorney.
(4) Admissibility of evidence. No part of the contents
of any wire, electronic, or oral communication that has
been recorded or intercepted as a result of this exception
may be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or
other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury,
department, officer, agency, regulatory body, legislative
committee, or other authority of this State, or a
political subdivision of the State, other than in a
prosecution of:
(A) the qualified offense for which approval was
given to record or intercept a conversation under this
subsection (q);
(B) a forcible felony committed directly in the
course of the investigation of the qualified offense
for which approval was given to record or intercept a

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conversation under this subsection (q); or
(C) any other forcible felony committed while the
recording or interception was approved in accordance
with this subsection (q), but for this specific
category of prosecutions, only if the law enforcement
officer or person acting at the direction of a law
enforcement officer who has consented to the
conversation being intercepted or recorded suffers
great bodily injury or is killed during the commission
of the charged forcible felony.
(5) Compliance with the provisions of this subsection
is a prerequisite to the admissibility in evidence of any
part of the contents of any wire, electronic or oral
communication that has been intercepted as a result of
this exception, but nothing in this subsection shall be
deemed to prevent a court from otherwise excluding the
evidence on any other ground recognized by State or
federal law, nor shall anything in this subsection be
deemed to prevent a court from independently reviewing the
admissibility of the evidence for compliance with the
Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or with Article
I, Section 6 of the Illinois Constitution.
(6) Use of recordings or intercepts unrelated to
qualified offenses. Whenever any private conversation or
private electronic communication has been recorded or
intercepted as a result of this exception that is not

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related to an offense for which the recording or intercept
is admissible under paragraph (4) of this subsection (q),
no part of the contents of the communication and evidence
derived from the communication may be received in evidence
in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before
any court, grand jury, department, officer, agency,
regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority
of this State, or a political subdivision of the State,
nor may it be publicly disclosed in any way.
(6.5) The Illinois State Police shall adopt rules as
are necessary concerning the use of devices, retention of
recordings, and reports regarding their use under this
subsection (q).
(7) Definitions. For the purposes of this subsection
(q) only:
"Forcible felony" includes and is limited to those
offenses contained in Section 2-8 of the Criminal Code
of 1961 as of the effective date of this amendatory Act
of the 97th General Assembly, and only as those
offenses have been defined by law or judicial
interpretation as of that date.
"Qualified offense" means and is limited to:
(A) a felony violation of the Cannabis Control
Act, the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, or
the Methamphetamine Control and Community
Protection Act, except for violations of:

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(i) Section 4 of the Cannabis Control Act;
(ii) Section 402 of the Illinois
Controlled Substances Act; and
(iii) Section 60 of the Methamphetamine
Control and Community Protection Act; and
(B) first degree murder, solicitation of
murder for hire, predatory criminal sexual assault
of a child, criminal sexual assault, aggravated
criminal sexual assault, aggravated arson,
kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, child
abduction, trafficking in persons, involuntary
servitude, involuntary sexual servitude of a
minor, or gunrunning.
"State's Attorney" includes and is limited to the
State's Attorney or an assistant State's Attorney
designated by the State's Attorney to provide verbal
approval to record or intercept conversations under
this subsection (q).
(8) (Blank). Sunset. This subsection (q) is
inoperative on and after January 1, 2023. No conversations
intercepted pursuant to this subsection (q), while
operative, shall be inadmissible in a court of law by
virtue of the inoperability of this subsection (q) on
January 1, 2023.
(9) Recordings, records, and custody. Any private
conversation or private electronic communication

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intercepted by a law enforcement officer or a person
acting at the direction of law enforcement shall, if
practicable, be recorded in such a way as will protect the
recording from editing or other alteration. Any and all
original recordings made under this subsection (q) shall
be inventoried without unnecessary delay pursuant to the
law enforcement agency's policies for inventorying
evidence. The original recordings shall not be destroyed
except upon an order of a court of competent jurisdiction;
and
(r) Electronic recordings, including but not limited
to, motion picture, videotape, digital, or other visual or
audio recording, made of a lineup under Section 107A-2 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963.
(Source: P.A. 101-80, eff. 7-12-19; 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.