The Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week that the city of Chicago may not destroy records of police misconduct that are more than five years old, despite a contract with the city’s police union that requires city officials to do so.

In a 6-1 ruling Wednesday, June 17, the high court said that a state law requiring public records to be maintained supersedes a provision in the city’s contract with the union.

The provision in the contract with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 requiring the city to destroy records of investigations and discipline arising from police misconduct has been the subject of litigation and arbitration for nearly thirty years.

After city officials notified the union that it intended to comply with the requests, a Cook County Circuit Court judge issued a series of preliminary injunctions, effectively preventing the city from releasing any records that were more than four years old or that were the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.

Finally, in October of that year, a circuit court judge issued an order overturning the arbitrator’s decision to enforce the contract, finding that the language “violated a well-defined and dominant public policy to preserve government records.”