BrianGarst.com

The right to film police officers in the course of their official duties is a common sense defense for citizens against the one-sided power of the badge and all the force of the state which stands behind it. Despite – or perhaps because of  – this fact, many police officers routinely harass, intimidate or assault citizens who film them in action, and corrupt DA’s charge them for violating unconstitutional interpretations of wiretapping laws, which were never intended to protect civil servants acting in public.

It is against this backdrop that a recent ruling by an Illinois judge should be seen as a victory for basic civil liberties.

An Illinois judge ruled the state’s eavesdropping law unconstitutional as applied to a man who faced up to to 75 years in prison for secretly recording his encounters with police officers and a judge.

“A statute intended to prevent unwarranted intrusions into a citizen’s privacy cannot be used as a shield for public officials who cannot assert a comparable right of privacy in their public duties,” the judge wrote in his decision dismissing the five counts of eavesdropping charges against defendant Michael Allison.

…The ruling is the most recent development raising questions about Illinois’ strict eavesdropping statute, which makes it a felony to use a device to audio record or overhear a conversation without the consent of all parties involved, regardless of the circumstances of the interaction.

Allison’s legal troubles began when he recorded his conversations with local police officers who he claimed were harassing him. The officers were seizing old cars he was fixing on his front lawn in violation of a city ordinance, which then forced him to pay a fee to have them returned.

When Allison was brought into court for violating the ordinance, he requested a court reporter so that he could have a record of his trial. The court declined his request and Allison announced that he would record the trial himself.

When he showed up to the courtroom for his trial, the judge immediately asked Allison if he had a recording device and if it was on. He answered yes and the judge had him arrested on the spot for violating her privacy.

When police confiscated Allison’s digital device, they found the other recordings. Allison was then charged with five felony counts of eavesdropping, each of which can carry a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

In Thursday’s ruling, Circuit Court Judge David Frankland said that Allison had a First Amendment right to record the police officers and court employees.

We have a long way to go before the  far-too-regular abuses of the state through the justice system are curtailed, but this is another important step on that path.

police abuse