Illinois' penalty for knowingly recording audio of anyone without their consent is a Class 4 felony. It is punishable by up to three years in prison. When someone like Fitzpatrick decides to record law enforcement performing their job, the charge gets ratcheted up to a Class 1 felony and carries with it a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. A Class 1 felony is the same class as someone who is charged with having more than 11 pounds of marijuana.

"Illinois is virtually unique in making it a crime to record on-duty police officers. That's because of ... what I would say is a defect in our eavesdropping act that other states and federal eavesdropping acts don't have, which is we've extended the ban on eavesdropping from just private conversations to all conversations, whether or not they are private," said Adam Schwartz, the senior lawyer for Illinois' American Civil Liberties Union.

Only two other states - Massachusetts and Oregon - have similar eavesdropping laws. Illinois' statute referring to recording officials was enacted in 1994. An attempt to roll back the law 11 years later failed in the General Assembly.

The ACLU is trying to get the law declared unconstitutional in federal court, claiming it violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. A favorable ruling by a federal judge would automatically trump any state law.