Police & Investigative Records

129 Illinois PAC opinions and determination letters about police & investigative records.

Practical next steps: Guide to requesting police records

Police & Investigative Records: what the decisions show

This topic covers requests for police and investigative records such as arrest reports, incident reports, investigative files, 911 recordings, dispatch audio, dashboard and body camera video, and related operational records. Disputes often involve claims that disclosure would interfere with pending proceedings, invade personal privacy, or fall under other specific exemptions. Requests also included restraint-chair incident reports, response-time data, and staffing calendars.

In these decisions, the Public Access Counselor generally found violations where departments withheld records in full without meeting the burden for an exemption, with exemptions read narrowly. Limited no-violation outcomes involved proper redaction of personal telephone numbers and withholding of juvenile-involved reports where only basic adult arrest information was disclosed.

At a glance: 129 documents from 2012 to 2026(40 binding opinions, 89 determination letters). Outcome: 77 found a violation (in whole or part), 40 found none. Most often cited alongside: 7(1)(c) (Personal privacy) (50); 7(1)(b) (Private information) (43); 7(1)(a) (Confidential under other federal or State law) (21); 7(1)(d)(iv) (Would disclose a confidential source or informant) (17); 7.5(cc) (Law enforcement body-camera recordings) (13).

Recurring issues

Police departments withheld arrest reports and investigative files in full on the ground that disclosure would interfere with pending law enforcement proceedings. (A police department's case/incident report and related records, Police reports on a missing person's death, Police arrest reports)
Departments withheld video recordings, including body camera, dashboard camera, and other footage, as relating to employee discipline or adjudication. (Police video of a former deputy chief's DUI arrest, Video surveillance footage from an animal control facility, Dashcam footage, dispatch audio, and internal reviews of a fatal police chase)
Departments withheld police reports involving minors as victims, offenders, or witnesses based on privacy or the Juvenile Court Act. (Police reports of a teacher's arrest for crimes against a student, Police reports of an incident at a high school, Police records of uncharged sexual offense allegations against minors)
Public bodies denied incident reports and operational data, such as restraint-chair reports and 911 response-time data, citing privacy, security, or deliberative exemptions. (Incident reports on restraint chair use at a county jail, 911 call response time data from an emergency management office, A police department's monthly extradition calendar)

Practical points

A dispatch center disclosed 911 recordings with home or personal telephone numbers redacted while providing caller names.
A village disclosed basic adult arrest information while withholding police reports involving both an adult and a juvenile.
An office that first stated no records existed later located and disclosed a responsive policy after further search.

Summary drafted from the linked decisions and checked against them; read the decisions themselves before relying on it. Not legal advice.