(410 ILCS 535/15.1) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 73-15.1)

Sec. 15.1. (1) The Director of the Illinois State Police or his designee may obtain a registration of a fictitious vital record for the purpose and in the manner prescribed in this Section.

(2) A registration of a fictitious vital record may be obtained pursuant to this Section only for law enforcement purposes in providing: (a) witnesses with new identification to protect them during and following criminal investigations or proceedings; and (b) law enforcement officers with new identification to enable them to escape detection while performing criminal investigations.

(3) The Director of the Illinois State Police or his designee may apply to the circuit court on behalf of a person for an order directing the State Registrar of Vital Records to establish a fictitious vital record if it is determined by the Director that normal procedures of investigation or protection are inadequate or reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried or are too dangerous to employ. The court shall fix a time and place for hearing the application and, if it finds that the application should be granted, shall order the State Registrar of Vital Records to establish the vital record requested. The order shall include the data to be registered, and shall be delivered in person by the designee of the Director of the Illinois State Police to the State Registrar of Vital Records. Upon receipt of such order, the State Registrar of Vital Records shall establish a vital record as if such data had been registered pursuant to Section 12 or 18 of this Act or pursuant to Section 210 or 413 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act.

(4) The general public shall be excluded from any hearing on an application for an order under this Section and only persons, including representatives of agencies, who in the opinion of the court have a direct interest in the matter of the application shall be admitted to the hearing.

(5) The court's file relating to any proceeding under this Section shall be impounded by the clerk of the court and shall be opened for examination only upon specific order of the court, which order shall name the person or persons who are to be permitted to examine such file. Certified copies of any paper or document contained in any file so impounded shall be made only on like order.

(6) Any documentation concerning a vital record registered pursuant to this Section, including any court order entered under subsection (3), maintained by the Illinois State Police or by the State Registrar of Vital Records shall be sealed. Such documentation maintained by the Registrar of Vital Records shall be opened for examination only upon specific order of the court, which order shall name the person or persons who are to be permitted to examine such file. Such documentation maintained by the Illinois State Police shall be opened for examination only upon the written permission of the Director of that Department or his designee.

(7) The Registrar of Vital Records shall immediately notify the Director of the Illinois State Police or his designee upon receiving any request for a copy of or information concerning any vital record registered pursuant to this Section.

(8) If the court order directing the State Registrar of Vital Records to establish a fictitious vital record does not specify a time for the destruction or elimination of such vital record, the fictitious vital record shall be destroyed or eliminated at the conclusion of the investigation or when the Director of the Illinois State Police determines that such record is no longer necessary. After the destruction of such record, the Director of the Illinois State Police shall so notify the court which entered the order directing the establishment of the fictitious vital record.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)