By Illinois News Network
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois is on the way to becoming the first state in the nation to have statewide regulations for police worn body cameras, though it won’t be a mandate for cops to wear the cams.
The bill that originated in the Senate includes provisions for how the cameras should be operated, how data should be stored, and how video could be available through Freedom of Information. There are also reforms to police training on a variety of fronts from stop and frisks to officer involved shootings.
House Sponsor, Democratic Rep. Elgie Sims of Chicago, said the bill also addresses concerns about the recently revised eavesdropping law regarding the public recording police.
“We specifically put into this bill that no law enforcement officer could prohibit, nor could they confiscate a recording medium an individual uses to record a police officer during the course of their on-duty activities,” Sims said.
Representative Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) said the measures are not the end all, be all, but it’s a start. Flowers said there has been hundreds of millions of dollars paid out in police misconduct settlements in Chicago alone.
“That’s education, that’s health care, that’s infrastructure, that’s a whole lot of things we could have been doing other than spending it on police misconduct,” Flowers said
The measure would increase the fine of all traffic tickets by $5 with the money being split between a fund to offer grants for local law enforcement agencies wanting body cameras.
Money would also be used for training programs through the Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. The measure passed the House Thursday after passing unanimously in the Senate last month but heads back to the Senate for concurrence.
