On Friday, 15 July 2016, pursuant to a FOIA request from Todd Lighty of the Chicago Tribune, the Department will be releasing data relating to officer-involved shootings from 01 January 2010 through 31 December 2015. The Department is required by law to comply with this request. The information being furnished, but is not limited to, the RD number, date, time, and location of the incident, information regarding the shooting officer (including name, sex, race, year of birth, unit of assignment, service start date, number of shots fired, injury information and extent of injury suffered) and information of the subject shot (including name, sex, race, age, weapon used and charges).

If you are wondering why the Department is not redacting the shooting officer’s name and information, the act does not allow for it. The act reads:

7(1)(c) (Exemptions) states that “Personal information contained within public records, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, unless the disclosure is consented to in writing by the individual subjects of the information. “Unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” means the disclosure of information that is highly objectionable to a reasonable person and in which the subject’s right to privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining the information.  The disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy.”

The Department will be providing the CPLA a copy of the records being released. It is unknown at this time how many of our members will be affected by this request. Any member who is the named in this release will be receiving a letter from the Department a letter stating such.

If you have any questions regarding this release, please contact your representative or myself.

Stay safe,