Illinois just quietly passed a law that makes it more illegal for you to record the cops than for them to record you.

In most states it is com­plete­ly legal to record police when they are on duty. It’s a basic right that keeps the gov­ern­ment account­able. But Illinois just passed vague law that dis­cour­ages peo­ple from record­ing inter­ac­tions with police by mak­ing it a felony in cer­tain sit­u­a­tons, adding jail time if a per­son “eaves­drops” on a police offi­cer. This could be a dan­ger­ous trend unless we stop it now.

In most states it is com­plete­ly legal to record police when they are on duty. It’s a basic right that keeps the gov­ern­ment account­able. But Illinois just passed vague law that dis­cour­ages peo­ple from record­ing inter­ac­tions with police by mak­ing it a felony in cer­tain sit­u­a­tons, adding jail time if a per­son “eaves­drops” on a police offi­cer. This could be a dan­ger­ous trend unless we stop it now.