By Edgar County Watchdogs
Illinois – (ECWd) –
At a time in our society when trust in our government officials is being questioned daily, our Illinois State Police (ISP), have thrown another curve ball that clearly points to a problem and only helps to erode trust in that agency. We want to emphasise; there are many honest, ethical, and trusted Officers within this agency and just because we are pointing out the bad actors does not mean the whole agency is to blame. We ask those with the integrity to please fix this problem and make the corrections public so that trust can be earned in an agency we need in this state.
We have been seeking evidence from the ISP since the 2012 conviction of two Edgar County Corrections officers as we believe certain records in their possession will point to another Edgar County official that avoided prosecution.
A ruling by the Attorney General Public Access Counselor in 2015 found that the ISP violated the Freedom of Information Act and instructed the ISP to provide the records. To date, they have refused.
The Better Government association wrote a recent article that highlighted this particular case and the information they obtained creates a real problem of the ISP. Their article can be read here.
The Problem for the ISP?:
2012 -ISP contended that redacting the interviews would constitute the creation of new records
2016 -ISP tells the BGA reporter -“The technology didn’t exist in 2012 to redact the information without undo expense,” “If they want to resubmit the FOIA, now there is new technology that does exist to redact the information.”
Now they claim the technology DID NOT exist in 2012 yet that is not what they told the Attorney General in 2012. They also claimed now there is new technology that does exist to redact the information and imply a new FOIA would be honored.
I re-submitted the same FOIA as 2012 and what did the ISP say...
To read the rest, click this link