A new federal class action lawsuit accuses the police department in a far north Chicago suburb of repurposing a retired 911 system to surreptitiously record all non-emergency phone calls at the department for eight years, allegedly breaking federal wiretap laws and violating the constitutional rights of those calling the police department or using phones at the department.
On Jan. 4, attorney Jeffrey R. Kulwin, of the firm of Kulwin Masciopinto & Kulwin, of Chicago, and attorneys James B. Zouras and Ryan F. Stephan, of Stephan Zouras LLP, of Chicago, filed suit in Chicago federal court against the village of Antioch, and many of its officials.
Defendants named in the action include Antioch Village President Larry Hanson, Village Manager James Keim, Police Chief Geoff Guttschow, Police Commander Rick Moritz and village attorney Robert Long.
Jeffrey R. Kulwin
| Kulwin Masciopinto Kulwin
According to the complaint, in 2012, Antioch decided to outsource its emergency police dispatch services to another 911 organization.
At that point, the complaint alleges Antioch Police took custody of the system the village’s former dispatchers had used to record emergency phone calls, and decided to use it to record non-emergency calls, to aid in police investigations.
However, the complaint asserts that use of the system violated federal law and the constitutional rights of anyone making a non-emergency call to the police department, or placing calls from the department using the department’s phone lines.
According to the complaint, former Antioch Police Chief Steve Huffman allegedly learned of the allegedly “illegal surveillance and recording system” at some point after he was appointed to the chief post in 2015.
Huffman then allegedly told Long, the village attorney, that the recording system needed to be reported to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office. However, according to the complaint, Long allegedly told Huffman the existence of the system “did not to be reported.”
According to the complaint, Huffman claims to have allegedly ordered Moritz to shut the system down. But the complaint said the recording system remained operational after Huffman was removed from his post.
Guttschow, who had served as deputy police chief at the department, was promoted to replace Huffman as chief in August 2020.
According to the complaint, the existence of the non-emergency recording system was publicly revealed in July 2020, prompting the class action lawsuit.
“In the Village of Antioch, despite the fact that the constitutional, statutory and common law privacy rights of citizens and employees were violated on a widespread basis, no effort was made to identify, determine or disclose the full extent of the misconduct, the individuals responsible for the misconduct or the individuals harmed by the misconduct,” the complaint said. “Rather, it was all covered up and kept hidden from view.
“Perpetrators were not held accountable. Victims were kept in the dark.”
According to the complaint, Babnik made numerous calls to his wife using the Antioch department’s non-emergency lines, and also made personal calls from the department using the department’s phones, allegedly with permission.
However, the complaint seeks to expand the action to include potentially thousands of other people who made calls to the police department, or placed calls using the department’s lines, without any knowledge their calls were allegedly being recorded.
The complaint asserts against the village and the individual defendants violations of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits police searches without a warrant; violations of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees of equal protection under the law; violation of federal wiretapping law; violation of Illinois state eavesdropping law; and invasion of privacy.
The complaint seeks a court order requiring the Antioch Police to stop using the system, and awarding the plaintiffs and class unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, plus attorney fees.