An Illinois appellate court handed police accountability activists a major victory Friday when it ruled that all police misconduct records going back to 1967 are subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. But now the Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago’s police union, says it plans to appeal the decision in a last ditch effort to block public access to the records.
In compliance with this ruling, the city made an unprecedented move toward transparency, and prepared to release all records pertaining to misconduct for every Chicago police officer dating back to 1967. However, the police union interfered, and secured an injunction on all but the last five years of these records, claiming that keeping older misconduct records violated the union’s contract with the city.
Even if the FOP succeeded in its quest to protect such records from public scrutiny, they would comprise just a small fraction of the overall data.
Kalven says the information therein will allow the public to understand what he calls the “relational universe” within Chicago law enforcement for the first time.
