Urbana Police Sued Again Over Use of Force Records

A second Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit has been filed this month against the City of Urbana, Illinois and the Urbana Police Department. 

The complaint, filed on behalf of Check CU Founder Christopher Hansen on April 14^th, alleges the following:

• The Urbana Police Department unlawfully redacted the names of police supervisors who approved reports involving use of force.
• The Urbana Police Department unlawfully denied copies of police reports related to Urbana officers using a TASER on an unarmed resident in July 2020.
• The Urbana Police Department unlawfully denied copies of police petitions for involuntary placement of arrestees into a mental health facility.
• The Urbana Police Department made other unlawful redactions to police reports.

As with past denials and redactions of police records, the City has failed to explain their exemptions.  The lawsuit claims, “In violation of Section 9(a) of FOIA, UPD has not provided a ‘detailed factual basis for the application of any exemption claimed.’ 5 ILCS 140/9(a).”

Check CU has already published one article which details the denial of the TASER incident records:

Urbana Police Deny Records on TASER & Beating Incident

Exhibits included with the lawsuit show that Hansen attempted to communicate with Urbana Police Department FOIA Specialist Tony Weck and City of Urbana FOIA Officer Ross McNeil about the exemptions, but they both ignored his emails.

Since Urbana City Officials would not respond to repeated communications, Hansen was forced to take the matter to court.

Just one week prior, on April 7^th, the City of Urbana was named in a different FOIA lawsuit for unlawfully delaying and denying other requests for police records – in some cases taking multiple months to respond, even though state law requires public bodies to supply records in five business days.  The same lawsuit also named the Village of Rantoul and the Champaign County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Civil Rights Law Firm Loevy & Loevy, based in Chicago, filed the complaint (shown below) on behalf of Check CU Founder Christopher Hansen with the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Champaign, Illinois on April 14^th, 2022.