A Chicago Tribune overview of FOIA in Illinois includes a seven-item wish list of what people familiar with the law would like to see improved. The list includes limiting exemptions, modernizing access to digital records, and strengthening penalties for delayed responses. Read the full list […]
Read More… from Illinois residents name seven ways the state’s FOIA law should improve
An April 2, 2021, Chicago Tribune article by Courtney Kueppers demonstrates how private citizens using the Illinois Freedom of Information Act can “shape public discourse and change laws.” Concerned citizens, journalists, nonprofits, lawyers and gadflies all make regular use of FOIA requests, and information that Illinois residents have obtained through FOIA has helped shape public […]
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week that the city of Chicago may not destroy records of police misconduct that are more than five years old, despite a contract with city’s police union that requires city officials to do so. In a 6-1 ruling Wednesday, the high court said that a state law requiring public […]
Read More… from Illinois high court: Police records cannot be destroyed
When Larry Young started requesting records from police, he just wanted to find out what had happened to his daughter, Molly. More than six years after the 21-year-old was found shot to death in her ex-boyfriend’s Carbondale apartment, Young is still fighting law enforcement agencies for records under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, or […]
Read More… from Citizens Count on the Illinois Freedom of Information Act but Keep Getting Shut Out
A confidentiality rule approved by the board of Evanston Township High School District 202 (ETHS) on Dec. 11 unlawfully reverses the presumption of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to an attorney on the board who voted against it. “The presumption under FOIA is that all government communication is public with some narrow areas […]
Read More… from Evanston (IL) High School board slams door on public access to communications
Optics aside, Greitens isn't the only governor connected to supportive nonprofit organizations.
Groups in Arizona, Illinois and Georgia have sprung up to help the states' governors, while avoiding traditional donation requirements. Robert Maguire of the Center for Responsive Politics said the groups are the "unlimited, undisclosed arm of the administration that basically … bolsters the agenda of the governor."
[…]
Read More… from Secretive Nonprofits Back Governors Around The Country
The city of Chicago paid out about $670,000 last year to plaintiffs in lawsuits alleging that officials violated open records law — nearly five times what the city paid in the previous eight years combined.
[…]
Read More… from Chicago paid $670,000 in 2016 over lawsuits alleging open records violations
If you've ever wondered what all of those firetrucks or police cars were doing the other day on the Naperville street where you live, you need wonder no longer starting Monday.
As part of an "open data" initiative enacted earlier this month by the Naperville City Council, residents will be able to learn when, where and why police officers or firefighters were sent out on emergency calls, courtesy of a daily "public safety incident map" making its formal debut Monday on the city's website.
[…]
Read More… from IL: Naperville residents can track police, fire calls via new online map
The investigation by the Reader and Lucy Parsons Labs into the Chicago Police Department's use of civil forfeiture money began with a single, tantalizing detail in a single FOIA'd document.
[…]
Read More… from IL: How the Chicago Reader pulled back the curtain on CPD’s secret spending
If the unions that represent Chicago's police officers had their way, the records of hundreds of thousands of citizen complaints against cops would have been fed into the shredder by now.
They wouldn't be available for the U.S. Department of Justice as it tries to determine whether police have routinely engaged in behavior that violates the civil rights of citizens. They'd be gone.
[…]
Read More… from Editorial: Lawmakers must act now to save Chicago police misconduct records
