Attorney general's office: Release police complaint records

After a Champaign police officer shot and killed 15-year-old Kiwane Carrington in October 2009 during what was mistakenly believed to be an attempted break-in, I set out to write a story for CU-CitizenAccess about the way the police departments in Champaign and Urbana handle complaints residents lodge against their officers.

Problems soon arouse because the police departments would not release public records relating to the complaints, including the completed complaint forms, notes or internal reports on complaint investigations, and police incident reports connected to the complaints, among other documents. Their refusal to release records ended up becoming the story.

The cities cited provisions in the law that they believed allowed them to withhold the documents to protect the privacy of the individuals making the complaints and the officers against whom unfounded complaints were filed.

After Urbana denied our Freedom of Information request, I filed a request for review in March 2010 with the public access counselor in the Illinois attorney general's office. More than a year later, on Aug. 12, the office issued its non-binding opinion on the request.

In summary, while the Urbana Police Department is allowed to withhold the notes and memos generated during its investigations of complaints, it is not allowed to withhold "citizen complaints, the determination of each disciplinary investigation, letters of discipline, and related police incident reports," according to the letter from Sarah Kaplan, an assistant attorney general in the Public Access Bureau.

Furthermore, the city can request pre-authorization from the attorney general's office to redact the names of private citizens or third parties mentioned in the documents, but it cannot withhold documents relating to unfounded complaints in order to protect the privacy of officers.

Kaplan writes: "The City argues that disclosure of unfounded allegations against police officers would invade the accused police officers' privacy, and that citizens' allegations against police officers do not bear on the public duties of those officers where the allegations are false. We disagree. ... Whether founded or unfounded, these complaints and the related investigative materials 'bear on' the officers' public duties, and therefore disclosure of these documents cannot be considered an invasion of the officers' privacy."

The ruling, however, does not guarantee easy access to these documents in the future. After The News-Gazette filed a similar request with the city of Champaign and received a similar ruling from the public access counselor, the city has continued its refusal to release the names of officers identified in complaints.

"In this case, the city disagrees with the PAC's interpretation of the FOIA and has decided not to comply with the advisory opinion of the PAC," Deputy City Attorney Trisha Crowley wrote in a June 21 letter to The News-Gazette, which is quoted in a story on the paper's website.

To read the full text of the public access counselor's response to CU-CitizenAccess' request for review as a PDF, click here.