Phil Kadner of the Daily Southtown wrote an article  about the legislative effort to protect crime victims from being evicted under local ordinances. So-called "crime-free housing" or "nuisance" ordinances often require landlords to push tenants out of their homes if the police are contacted regarding alleged criminal activity at a property. Those most adversely impacted are survivors of domestic violence who are pushed out of their homes for calling the police for help against their abusers. The bill, drafted by the ACLU of Illinois, aims to prevent the enforcement of these ordinances and to enable tenants and landlords to sue if they are penalized for repeated calls to the police from their property. Phil Kadner spoke with the bill's sponsor, State Senator Toi Hutchinson: 

"People should not be punished for calling police for help," Hutchinson said, explaining her motivation for sponsoring Senate Bill 1547. "What we're doing is victimizing the victims of domestic violence a second time.

"We're discouraging people from reporting acts of abuse when we know how difficult it is for women in such situations to extricate themselves and report their abusers. We should be helping these women, not penalizing them.

Read the entire article.

WBBM-AM 780 spoke with ACLU Attorney Adam Schwartz about a new measure which would regulate the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) by Illinois law enforcement. ALPRs are mounted camera devices used in police cars to scan the license plates on every car in its vicinity. The information collected by the devices are stored in databases and are often used to locate stolen vehicles. However, the ACLU is concerned that ALPRs can be another method for unwarranted surveillance of law-abiding motorists. Schwartz stated:

“Of course, we don’t object to running the plates of passing cars, and seeing if the car going by is the AMBER Alert car everyone’s looking for,” he said.

However, the ACLU objects to unlimited use of the devices.

“What this is is a database of the comings and goings of millions of innocent Americans,” he said.

Read more and listen to the segment.

The Chicago Tribune talked to ACLU of Illinois Communications and Public Policy Director Ed Yohnka about the Real ID Act - a law which was passed in 2005 in light of 9/11. In an effort to combat terrorism by enforcing air travel restrictions, the Real ID Act requires state-issued identification cards to meet certain criteria. A key requirement mandated by the Real ID Act is birth certificate verification, which Illinois currently does not require. The article approximates that an estimated $3.75 million a year would be needed to implement birth certificate verification and to set up a database to store all of the information, which could be shared across state lines. The ACLU has opposed Real ID, citing a range of concerns including costly administrative burdens on state governments, its ineffectiveness against terrorism, increased security risks and threats to privacy. Ed Yohnka told the Chicago Tribune:

"One of the troubling things is that the system to protect our data will no longer be dependent about what happens here in Illinois," Yohnka said. "What happens in Mississippi or Maine or Montana will be a conduit to get to our data. If hackers can get into those systems, they can get to the national system."

He noted that the state's database of driver's licenses has fought off tens of thousands of improper access attempts. "From a pragmatic point of view, all this furor over something that doesn't provide safety and security is ridiculous," Yohnka said

Read the entire article.