Just a few months after the last remaining law enforcement agencies were required to equip officers with body cameras, several legislative efforts in 2025 tried to limit access to body […] ...

Bryan Zarou, the Better Government Association’s vice president of policy, has been appointed to serve on the City of Chicago’s Inspector General Search Committee. The Inspector General is one of […] ...

The foundational principle of Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act is that the public is entitled to “full and complete ...

Featuring the 22nd Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Investigative Reporting on Thursday, May 7, from 3:30–8:30 p.m.

Departmental budgets for three of Chicago’s oversight agencies are not on their own sufficient to meet mandatory minimums described in law, a BGA Policy analysis of annual appropriations and related ...

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When it comes to proving they are logging enough time on the job to deserve their taxpayer-funded pensions, DuPage County Board members would do well to recognize they fall into that “all others” ...

The proposed 2024 budget for the City of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first, offers relatively modest increases in citywide spending and staffing, with a 1.3% increase in appropriations and a 0.9% ...

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability recommends candidates for Chicago Police Department and Police Board leadership, drafts and has power to approve CPD policies, and reviews ...

We are proud to honor civic leader and BGA Board member Carroll Joynes with the 2024 Daniel L. Goodwin Watchdog Award for his decade of commitment to the BGA’s mission and its solutions-based ...

In a memo sent Friday to the Chicago City Council’s ethics committee, city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg laid out a series of what her office characterizes as obstructions by the city’s law ...

Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) is the process of automatically registering eligible people to vote whenever they interact with a participating state government agency, such as the Secretary of ...