How can one eavesdrop on a cop while the cop is talking to them?
Seems to me a constitutional violation has been perpetrated.
Let me get this straight -this law says if a cop stops and talks to YOU, it isn't eavesdropping on the cops because clearly you are being directly addressed by that cop and part of that conversation. Got that part down ok. BUT if during the course of the conversation you are having with the cop you videotape him while talking to him and he is talking to you -THEN you are "eavesdropping"? What a joke. Someone needs a dictionary -and a better lawyer! Similar laws have been successfully challenged in other states as a violation of first amendment rights. How can you EAVESDROP on PUBLIC servants doing their jobs...IN PUBLIC! The same people taping this were the ones being TALKED to by these cops -they weren't eavesdropping on a conversation THEY were part of -it is impossible to be eavesdropping on your OWN conversation! There is NO reasonable expectation of PRIVACY here and in this day and age for anyone out in public that is true, not just cops. How is it "eavesdropping" for them -but fine and dandy when I end up on numerous security cameras without MY knowledge? Oh, no reasonable expectation of privacy for ME in public -but there is for a PUBLIC SERVANT doing his job...IN PUBLIC?? Someone whose salary comes out of OUR pockets has "rights" we don't have? Exactly when did THAT happen that public servants were given "rights" that are reserved to them alone but entirely OFF LIMITS to everyone else? They have the authority to arrest me and order me to do as they tell me -but they don't have "privacy" rights that go above and beyond those of the rest of us.
I hope someone challenges Illinois' fucked up law which was born out of corruption -which is par for the course in Illinois, one of the three most revoltingly corrupt states in the Union. That is a law intended to give cops some cover if and when they abuse their authority so they only need to worry about "losing" their own videotape if they cross the line -you know, one of those "oh the video camera wasn't working that night and you have to take my word for it he was trying to grab my gun and resisting arrest which is why I had to beat him into a coma" type thing - and not worry about those made by someone else that may slip their notice. This was pushed by the police union in the first place after several cops were videotaped by bystanders abusing their authority.
This is just one more example of what happens when corruption is not just allowed to fester but is carefully cultivated as it is in Illinois. A filthy, blatantly corrupt system that exists for the benefit of those who are part of the power structure -NOT private citizens who become increasingly helpless to stop it. The time to have stopped it in Illinois was decades ago -now its so entrenched it is resistant to being cleaned up no matter who gets elected and no matter which party happens to be in power. The idea that private citizens who feared being abused by cops in the first place being charged with a crime and then force to APOLOGIZE to them for taping them during the course of this stop -is beyond obscene.
THIS is why it is necessary to videotape cops as they perform their duties in public:
15 Years in Prison For Taping the Cops? How Eavesdropping Laws Are Taking Away Our Best Defense Against Police Brutality | Missing Pieces
And in spite of successful challenges to these laws -it doesn't stop the arrests and only encourages police intimidation and greater abuses of power.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/06/raymond_herisse_ided_as_man_sh.php