Illinois residents name seven ways the state’s FOIA law should improve

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 […]

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Chicago Tribune highlights private citizens using state’s FOIA to reveal information, change laws

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 […]

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Illinois high court: Police records cannot be destroyed

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 […]

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Citizens Count on the Illinois Freedom of Information Act but Keep Getting Shut Out

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 […]

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Evanston (IL) High School board slams door on public access to communications

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 […]

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Secretive Nonprofits Back Governors Around The Country

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."

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IL: Naperville residents can track police, fire calls via new online map

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.

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Editorial: Lawmakers must act now to save Chicago police misconduct records

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.

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