City Council Committee on Police and Fire Transcripts Now Open to FOIA
CJP used Illinois's Freedom of Information Act to secure a victory for openness and transparency in government. Prior to CJP's work the Committee used a contractual obligation with a court reporting service to prohibit access to transcripts of Committee Proceedings. CJP fought against this stance and obtained a judgment from the Illinois Attorney General's Office stating that private contractual obligations cannot prohibit access.
A copy of the transcript to the Committee's July 24th, 2007 hearing on the Special Prosecutor's Investigation in to torture allegations involving former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge can been now be downloaded below!
How we opened access:
The Chicago Justice Project filed a request under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the Chicago City Council Committee on Police and Fire. This request (see below for a link) was filed seeking copies of transcripts to hearings the Committee conducted. The Committee directed CJP to an outside court reporting service for CJP to purchase copies of the transcripts. We believe that this is a violation of the Illinois FOIA laws. CJP sought and received a judgment from the Illinois Attorney General's Office supporting its position that the transcripts should be made available through the FOIA. We have appealed the decision by the Committee and after a few weeks CJP contacted the Committee and was informed that the transcripts would indeed be made available.
Below we make available in PDF format our communication with Committee Chair Isaac Carothers and Terry Mutchler, Public Access Counselor and Assistant Attorney General, as well as the transcripts themselves.
