Cook County Illinois court doesn't allow camera phones

Robert Grosshandler, the founder and CEO of iGive.com, wasn't allowed into the Cook County (Illinois) courthouse because he was carrying a camera phone -- a Handspring/palmOne Treo 600.

Robert writes me that he was only "partially surprised" that camera phones were banned, but he was "very surprised" that a sheriff's deputy recognized the Treo as a camera phone. The deputy wanted Robert to take the handset back to his (Robert's) car, but the deputy agreed to check it, instead.

I wrote on Sunday that a Detroit News article noted that courts are banning camera phones because they don't want law enforcement officers or jurors photographed.

So where should you put them?

This could be a real pain for many folks who unwittingly take their camera phones into a courthouse and are told to remove them from the premises. If courthouses don't check camera phones -- and the users didn't drive their own automobiles to get there -- where are camera phone users supposed to dump their phones?

Eventually, the word will get out that you shouldn't bring a camera phone to court. But this can be a real pain in the ass, especially if you need your phone to make calls outside of the court.

[Update] Check out the comment posted by Ernest Svenson, a New Orleans attorney and one of the most well known bloggers under the name of Ernie the Attorney.

Comments

[Ernest Svenson]

Many courts don't allow cellphones, even ones without cameras. In the federal court system the security policy is set for the most part by the Marshall's Office, but there are variances in the policy for each court. In New Orleans where I practice the federal court doesn't allow cellphones and hasn't ever allowed them (supposedly because they could contain plastic explosives). The prospect that the Court Security Personnel would have to pay attention to what KIND of phone they allowed in only dims the prospect that the court will allow cellphones in the future.