The Murder Accountability
Project has reached a settlement in its lawsuit against the Illinois State
Police and is publishing online the case-level details of 432 homicides
committed in Illinois from 1996 through 2015 that were not reported to the Justice
Department.
These recovered records, available at the "Search Cases" tab, represent only 20 percent of the estimated 2,100 homicides Illinois did not report to the FBI’s voluntary Supplementary Homicide Reporting program.
Illinois
ceased reporting SHR data to the federal government in 1994, but continued to
gather supplemental data on homicides involving domestic violence, crimes
against children and hate crimes. Illinois officials agreed to release those
records as part of a settlement of MAP’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit
filed last year.
“The (Illinois) UCR program has never collected necessary data that would allow for the calculation of a clearance rate for any criminal offenses,” Easum said. “Thus, in this regard, no such records exist.”
Illinois is the largest jurisdiction in the United States failing to report how often it clears homicides through arrest.
These recovered records, available at the "Search Cases" tab, represent only 20 percent of the estimated 2,100 homicides Illinois did not report to the FBI’s voluntary Supplementary Homicide Reporting program.
Illinois
ceased reporting SHR data to the federal government in 1994, but continued to
gather supplemental data on homicides involving domestic violence, crimes
against children and hate crimes. Illinois officials agreed to release those
records as part of a settlement of MAP’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit
filed last year.
“Although only partially
successful, our agreement has recovered hundreds of records that may be useful
to homicide investigators and to the public,” said Thomas K. Hargrove, chairman
of the Murder Accountability Project’s board of directors. “We are building
America’s most complete homicide database and are grateful for these records
provided by Illinois State Police.”
Illinois officials said they
have no other homicide records available for recovery.
Although the state once
possessed homicide records from the mid 1990s, those “documents have since been
disposed pursuant of the Secretary of State’s record retention rules which only
provide that paper records be retained for 10 years,” said Illinois Freedom of
Information Officer Nancy G. Easum.
Illinois this year has
resumed gathering complete Supplementary Homicide Report data.
The Murder Accountability
Project was entirely unsuccessful in its attempt to obtain homicide clearance
records, which Illinois also ceased reporting in 1994 to the Justice
Department’s Uniform Crime Report.
“The (Illinois) UCR program has never collected necessary data that would allow for the calculation of a clearance rate for any criminal offenses,” Easum said. “Thus, in this regard, no such records exist.”
Illinois is the largest jurisdiction in the United States failing to report how often it clears homicides through arrest.
"The people have a
right to be informed about public affairs and a right to public records. Records related to homicide data and
clearance rates are no exception," said Josh Burday of the Chicago civil
rights law firm Loevy & Loevy, who represented MAP in the suit.
