Under 725 ILCS 5/103-3.5, you have the right to communicate free of charge with an attorney of your choice and members of your family as soon as possible upon being taken into police custody, but no later than 3 hours after arrival at the first place of detention. You must be given access to a telephone to make 3 calls. If you are moved to a new place of detention, your right to make 3 calls within 3 hours of arrival is renewed.
If police violate these rights, your statements to them are presumed inadmissible as evidence. However, the state may overcome this presumption by showing that your statement was voluntarily given and is reliable based on the totality of the circumstances.
The 3-hour rule does not apply if you are asleep, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated or if an exigent circumstance prevents the officers from complying. The police report must then document the exigent circumstance. Once the exigent circumstance ends, the right to make 3 phone calls within 3 hours resumes.
The police must display a notice of your right to the 3 calls and may also have to display the phone number of the public defender, where available. Police must maintain records of the number of calls you made, when you made them, and the reason why if you did not make calls.
Before this law took effect on 1/1/22, police could hold you a “reasonable time” before allowing you to make phone calls.
If you have questions about this or another related Illinois criminal or traffic matter, please contact Matt Keenan at 847-568-0160 or email matt@mattkeenanlaw.com.
(Besides Skokie, Matt Keenan also serves the communities of Arlington Heights, Chicago, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, Wilmette and Winnetka.)
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Illinois Jurisprudence: Criminal Law and Procedure. Vol. 1. (LexisNexis 2014).
Illinois Jurisprudence: Criminal Law and Procedure. Vol. 1. (LexisNexis 2014).