With the constitutionality of Illinois' eavesdropping law already facing several court challenges, a Democratic state representative from Northbrook has filed a bill that would allow people to audio-record a police officer working in public without the officer's consent.

"I believe that the existing statute is a significant intrusion into First Amendment rights, so with the prosecutions and the court cases that have been reported about, it just seemed that this is a problem in need of a swift solution," Rep. Elaine Nekritz said in an interview Thursday.

Illinois' eavesdropping law is one of the strictest in the country and makes it illegal to audio-record police without their consent, even when they're working in public. The state is one of a handful in which it is illegal to record audio of public conversations without the permission of everyone involved.

The law — a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison — has come under increasing scrutiny in the last few years in courts throughout the state.

In August, a Cook County jury acquitted a woman who had recorded two Chicago police internal affairs investigators she believed were trying to dissuade her from filing a sexual harassment complaint against a patrol officer.

In a separate Cook County case, Chicago artist Chris Drew is facing trial for allegedly making an illegal audio recording of Chicago police during a 2009 arrest for selling art on a downtown street without a permit.

And in September, a Crawford County judge ruled the law unconstitutional and dismissed eavesdropping charges against a man accused of recording police and court officials without their consent.

The ruling prompted Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to file notice that she will appeal directly to the state Supreme Court, but she wants to delay arguments until after a ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago regarding a suit against the law filed by the ACLU in 2010.

Officials with the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago have said the union backs the current law because it prevents people from making baseless accusations against officers by recording them and then releasing snippets that don't reveal the full context of the incident.

But Nekritz — whose proposed legislation, HB 3944, also would allow a person to record a phone conversation with a business if the business says it may record the call — said police officers working in public should not consider their actions private.

rhaggerty@tribune.com

Twitter @RyanTHaggerty