Turning On an Audio Recorder Could Send You to Prison

If you are in Illinois, you better be careful where you point your cameraphone or voice recorder. Chris Drew, a Chicago artist, and Tiawanda Moore, a former stripper, are facing up to 15 years in prison for eavesdropping, according to a story in the Chicago News Cooperative. Drew used an Olympus voice recorder to commit his crime and Moore used her Blackberry.

Both are being charged under the rarely enforced The Illinois Eavesdropping Act, which makes it illegal to audio-record either private or public conversations without the consent of all parties. Illinois is one of 12 states with “two-party consent” eavesdropping laws on the books.


Most states have an exception for civilians recording police conversations in public. But not Illinois.
There is an exception in Illinois that allows law-enforcement officers to legally record civilians in private or public. But, not the other way around.

Nowadays, nearly everyone is carrying around a camera and phone capable of making audio recordings. As Adam Schwartz, an ACLU lawyer who has challenged the law pointed out, when “something fishy seems to be going on, the perfectly natural and healthy and good thing is for them to pull that device out and make a recording.” You might think twice about making that recording if you are in Illinois.:))

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Long Live USA:))...