Law bans police from some checks on speakers at public meetings
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed into law a measure that makes it illegal for police to use at least one commonly searched law enforcement database to conduct criminal background checks on citizens who sign up to speak at public meetings statewide.
The law was inspired by a 2019 Tribune story that disclosed how the Chicago Police Department ran secret background checks for over a decade on several hundred citizens who signed up to speak at public meetings before the Chicago Police Board.
The measure was introduced in the House by state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat, weeks after the newspaper published a follow-up story showing the secret background checks went back further than city officials had initially acknowledged.
The new law, which goes into effect immediately, bars police agencies throughout Illinois from conducting background checks on citizens “for the sole reason” of that person speaking “at an open meeting of a public body, including police disciplinary boards.”
The measure — known as the Empowering Public Participation Act — was approved in May on a 73-44 final vote in the House and a 38-17 vote in the Senate.
Sen. Robert Peters, the bill’s chief Senate sponsor, called the background checks “a shady practice that intentionally sets up barriers in the fight to win real safety and justice for all.”
“Public safety belongs to the people, which means that the people should be able to share their opinion at public hearings and meetings,” Peters, a Chicago Democrat, said Friday in a statement. “This is especially true of police board meetings. Law enforcement using background checks to intimidate people from participating in the very hearings that will hold them accountable should set off red flags for everyone as something that should not be permitted to happen.”
The bill was largely opposed by Senate Republicans who expressed concern about the possibility of criminal penalties for officers conducting background checks for legitimate safety reasons. A violation of the act can carry a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a fine up to $1,500.
The law has its limitations, however. It only addresses background checks conducted by police agencies through the state-regulated Law Enforcement Agencies Data System, also known as LEADS. The law doesn’t mention other databases that police departments such as Chicago’s may regularly use. In 2019, a Chicago police spokesman told the Tribune the department used at least one internal database to conduct the checks, but it’s unclear if LEADS was ever used.
Under the new law, background checks are allowed when law enforcement has a “reasonable” belief there’s a chance of criminal conduct or a security threat to the meeting. The law also does not apply to anyone who speaks at public meetings while being considered for a job by the agency holding the meeting.
In July 2019, the Tribune first reported on how the Chicago police compiled profiles of citizens who signed up to speak at Police Board meetings by searching at least one internal Police Department database to determine if speakers had arrest or prison records, warrants outstanding for their arrest or if they were registered sex offenders.
Police even sometimes searched voter registration records, as well as the person’s profiles and comments on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. In some cases, the profiles also included photos of speakers, either from various websites or police mug shots.
Those subjected to the background checks included activists, a police union official, relatives of people killed in police shootings, a woman who told the Police Board she was sexually assaulted by an officer years earlier, a religious leader and attorneys.
When the Tribune uncovered what was happening, current and past Police Board members condemned it and said they had no idea that it had occurred. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois also criticized the practice. And Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who once headed the Police Board while the background checks took place, ordered an immediate stop to such background checks.
At the mayor’s request, city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office opened an investigation into the origins and scope of the practice. Results of that probe have yet to be made public.
Lightfoot in July 2019 condemned the background checks as “just stupid” and said the Chicago Police Department, which issued a rare apology for carrying them out, has “to own this.”
Through documents obtained under a public records request, the Tribune initially learned that Chicago police had gathered information since at least January 2018 on nearly 60 people who signed up to speak at the Police Board meetings. But in September 2019, a broader public records request showed that the practice dated even further back, to at least the summer of 2006.
All told, from 2006 to 2019, Chicago police conducted criminal background checks and internet searches on more than 300 citizens who signed up to speak before the Police Board, the records showed.