By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – The City of Bloomington and Town of Normal processed a combined 2,676 Freedom of Information Act requests in 2016.

That’s 1,368 for Bloomington and 1,306 for Normal.

Normal fully denied 161 requests they received, which Town Clerk Wendy Briggs explained was usually because the town didn’t have a report for the information.

“That means the town has nothing at all on that item,” said Briggs. “If it’s an accident report, the accident did not occur in Normal or if it’s a police report it may have occurred somewhere else.”

Briggs added most of the reports Normal hands out have information redacted.

“Personal information, birthdays, phone numbers, statements of other people involved in something,” said Briggs. “If you and I had a report against each other, I could get my statements, but I couldn’t get your statements; you could get yours, but you couldn’t get mine.”

Bloomington Records and Information Manager Renee Gooderham said about 90 percent of the reports Bloomington answers have some information redacted, mainly because an investigation is still ongoing.

Gooderham added the city doesn’t track the number of requests which are completely denied.

“The way the tracking goes is that you’re supposed to track by the section that you are denied for, like private information,” said Gooderham. “So you could have one that’s partially been given to an individual, but have private information redacted.”

Both Bloomington and Normal said the most common requests they receive are for police reports.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].