Sunshine Week: Illinois’ Information Laws at Work
ICPR Executive Director Sarah Brune is quoted in this article
via Public News Service
“SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – It’s Sunshine Week, when civic groups focus on the need for open government and celebrate the Freedom of Information laws, including those in Illinois.
According to a report released this week by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan, her office in 2015 helped resolve a majority of more than 4,000 disputes over the state’s Freedom of Information and Open Meetings acts. One of the biggest wins, said Sarah Brune, executive director of the government watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, came when Madigan’s office found that the Chicago Police Department improperly withheld information about the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
‘Not only was a FOIA request denied in that case, they actually had to go to court to get the video in that shooting released,’ she said. ‘FOIA is important because it provides a point of access, but at the same time it can be problematic because there’s always someone on the other end who can approve or deny your request.'”
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