Illinois Public Access Opinion 16‑006 is a binding opinion of the Illinois Attorney General pursuant to the state's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Issued in 2016 in the aftermath of the murder of Laquan McDonald by a police officer, the opinion addressed a public records request from CNN for private emails by officers of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) related to the incident. After CPD denied CNN's request, the Attorney General's office, led by Lisa Madigan, ruled that the police officers' private emails about McDonald's murder were subject to public disclosure, even though those emails were communicated on accounts outside of the police department's email servers.
A prior appellate court decision in City of Champaign v. Madigan had established that communications about public business on personal electronic devices may be subject to disclosure. However, the scope of that decision applied only during public meetings convened by a city council or other public body, and it was unclear how it would apply to employees. In Public Access Opinion 16‑006, the Attorney General found that the police officers were acting on behalf of the police department, making their messages public records of the police department.
On October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald was fatally shot in Chicago by police officer Jason Van Dyke. Preliminary reports by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) suggested that McDonald was behaving erratically and had attacked officers with a knife when he was shot. The shooting was recorded by a CPD dashboard camera. However, the video was not initially available to the public, and a lawsuit was filed in Circuit Court of Cook County to secure the video's release. On November 19, 2015, the court ordered CPD to release the video, and CPD complied five days later. By then, thirteen months had passed since the shooting. The video revealed that McDonald had been walking away from police when he was shot.[1]
Off-duty police officers reportedly discussed the incident on personal devices and accounts.[2] On January 28, 2016, Courtney Yager, a producer for CNN, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to CPD for "all emails related to Laquan McDonald from Police Department email accounts and personal email accounts where business was discussed" for twelve CPD officers, including Van Dyke and others involved in the case. The request covered emails from October 19 through October 24, 2014 (around the date of the shooting), and November 19 through November 29, 2015 (around the date of the circuit court's order, and the video's subsequent release). CPD provided a large number of emails from the police officers' CPD-issued email accounts, but CPD failed to search for the officers' private emails, despite CNN's request.[3]: 2–4
On April 28, 2016, CNN attorney Drew Shenkman appealed CPD's omission to the Public Access Counselor, the bureau of the Illinois Attorney General responsible for enforcing FOIA.[3]: 2 CNN's situation was not unique. By 2018, journalists and citizen activists would file at least 10 appeals to the Public Access Counselor after Chicago officials blocked requests for records related to the murder of McDonald.[4]
Public bodies in Illinois, including CPD, are required under FOIA to make all public records open to disclosure. Public records include all emails "pertaining to the transaction of public business, regardless of physical form or characteristics, having been prepared by or for, or having been or being used by, received by, in the possession of, or under the control of any public body".[5]