Documents labeled “overhear” that were publicly posted on the Illinois General Assembly’s website contained unredacted details from active criminal investigations and were later removed after Illinois State Police (ISP) said their release posed a safety risk.
The documents, which Prairie State Wire is not publishing and has not shared, described Union County State’s Attorney’s Office “overhear” authorizations that allowed law enforcement to monitor phone calls between suspects and cooperating individuals.
Despite state law requiring only minimal statistical disclosures, the Union County State’s Attorney’s Office submitted highly detailed, unredacted reports that were posted online, exposing the full names of alleged criminals, identifying ISP investigators, and laying out case-by-case fact patterns that led to eavesdropping requests by ISP— information typically shielded from public view.
According to Illinois State Police Public Information Officer Melaney Arnold, the documents were not released by the state police.
“Those documents basically were released by the Union County State’s Attorney’s office, not ISP,” Arnold told Prairie State Wire. “There is a safety concern with those being out there. We reached out to the General Assembly to have them removed from the website because there is an active case. We request that you please do not share these any further, as it could be a safety concern.”
Arnold confirmed that the General Assembly had restricted access to the documents after ISP was contacted by Prairie State Wire.
“As the documents could jeopardize safety, ISP requests that you do not share further,” Arnold said in an email. “As mentioned, the General Assembly has disabled the link, removing public access to the unredacted documents.”
The reports were submitted under a 2015 statute requiring State’s Attorneys to submit annual summaries to the General Assembly regarding their use of overhear authorizations.
Under the statute, “each State’s Attorney shall annually submit a report to the General Assembly” disclosing “the number of requests for each qualified offense for approval under this subsection” and “the number of approvals for each qualified offense given by the State’s Attorney.”
Arnold provided an example of a report where those two numbers involving requests and approvals were provided. She emphasized that the law requires only limited disclosure.
“It’s the criminal codes of 20 ILCS by 14, which pertains to eavesdropping,” Arnold said. “There is a requirement for each State’s Attorney to annually submit a report to the General Assembly that simply has the number of requests and the number of approvals.”
Arnold emphasized that even though ISP investigators were named, responsibility for the disclosure did not rest with state police.
“Please reach out to the Union County State’s Attorney’s Office about the information it submitted to the General Assembly,” Arnold said in an email. “These documents were not released by ISP. Releasing these unredacted documents jeopardizes safety and ISP contacted the General Assembly to have them removed from the website.”
Illinois law strictly limits how intercepted communications may be used or disclosed.
The statute provides that “[n]o part of the contents of any wire, electronic, or oral communication” recorded under the overhear exception “may be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding” except in narrowly defined circumstances.
Compliance with the statute is mandatory for evidentiary use. It provides that “[c]ompliance with the provisions of this subsection is a prerequisite to the admissibility in evidence” of any intercepted communication, while also preserving judicial authority to exclude evidence on other grounds, including review under “the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution” and “Article I, Section 6 of the Illinois Constitution.”
The law also imposes an absolute bar on disclosure of unrelated communications.
