A
news media requester submitted a FOIA request to a police department seeking
records related to an investigation of an arrested individual for a domestic
incident. The department entirely denied its responsive records to the request
citing FOIA’s personal privacy exemption in Section 7(1)(c) of FOIA. After the
requester submitted a request for review to the Illinois Attorney General’s
Public Access Counselor (PAC) challenging the denial, the PAC issued its
sixth binding opinion of 2026 concluding that the department improperly
withheld its responsive records. PAC
Op. 26-006
The PAC first noted that previous PAC opinions were clear that there is a strong public interest in the disclosure of information concerning arrests that outweighs an arrestee’s right to privacy. Also, because the requester is a news reporter seeking to report about a matter of high
public interest (the arrest of a police officer), there was a heightened public interest
in disclosure of information regarding this arrest.
Because
the department’s records contain information that was incidental or had no bearing on
the arrest or circumstances leading to the arrest, including the names and
personally identifying information (contact information, nature of relationship
with arrestee) of witnesses and third parties, the PAC determined that the
department was authorized to redact that personal information pursuant to
Section 7(1)(c) of FOIA. However, the department was required to release the
remaining non-exempt parts of its responsive records to the request.
Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink