Illinois Gov signs bill expanding recording of police interrogations

Chicago Trib

Illinois police will have to record more interrogations of criminal suspects under legislation Gov. Pat Quinn signed Monday that aims to prevent false confessions and wrongful convictions.

The law expands on legislation passed in 2003 mandating the recording of homicide interrogations. The new requirements will take effect in phases over the next three years, and by June 2016, police will have to record interrogations of people suspected in any of eight violent felonies, including aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated battery with a gun and armed robbery.

Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, had originally proposed earlier this year that police record interrogations in all felonies, a measure some law enforcement authorities, including the Cook County state's attorney's office, opposed.

Advocates of recording and prosecutors praised the narrower measure's passage, saying it would shield police from bogus allegations of coercion while protecting suspects from overly aggressive interrogation methods that have produced false confessions.

"I think (the law) will go a long way toward preventing wrongful convictions," said Thomas Sullivan, a Chicago attorney and recording proponent who helped draft the legislation.

Under the new law, courts will presume inadmissible any statement a suspect in one of the specified felonies makes unless the interrogation is either audio- or video-recorded. The first incremental expansion of felonies that must be recorded will happen next June.