When a pair of journalists in Chicago both received questionable rejections for open-records requests, they asked the Fund to support a yearlong investigation into city agencies increasingly using “trade secret exemptions” to block access to information. For the Chicago Reader, Max Blaisdell and Matt Chapman filed 70 records requests across 35 city and county agencies and reviewed 350 denial letters. They analyzed FOIA logs to track patterns, finding that “trade secret” denials nearly tripled over seven years. The investigation revealed stark inconsistencies in how agencies apply the exemption. In many cases, requesters were not seeking proprietary technologies or business processes but were asking for materials related to federal investigations, the grading criteria for firefighter examinations and tax payments made to the city.
In sweeping yearlong investigation, grantees probe Chicago agencies’ efforts to conceal public information
