Employee's Disciplinary Records Exempt Under FOIA
In a recent appellate court decision, an Illinois court upheld a municipality's denial of a FOIA request asking for the "disciplinary history" for a city employee. Johnson v. Joliet Police Department, 2018 IL App (3d) 170726.
The requester had asked for the disciplinary history for a city employee. The city denied the request, citing section 8 of the Personnel Records Review Act that prohibits the release of disciplinary records of a government employee that are more than 4 years old, and that it had no disciplinary records for the period within the prior 4 years. The requester sued, arguing that the statute does not apply to FOIA requests.
The circuit court ruled in the city's favor and the requester appealed. The appellate court agreed with the circuit court, finding the requested records expressly exempt from FOIA under section 7.5(q) of FOIA that states that records prohibited from release under the Personnel Records Review Act are exempt from FOIA. The court distinguished between citizen complaints (that depending on the nature of the complaint may not be exempt) and disciplinary records (which are expressly exempt from FOIA).
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