Consider reaching out to https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/ if any headway can be made legally on these scenarios. They are aggressive, highly recommend. If the legal scaffolding exists to enable FOIA requests, https://www.muckrock.com/ can then do the rest.
Reclaim the Records and I do a loooot of the same work but it's separate enough that we don't really interact much. But I'm a big, big fan of their work and have had a couple light chats with the founder a couple times. She's great and yeah, wonderfully aggressive. Her work's the sort of foundational work that enables so much.
Muckrock and I go back quite a long way! Sending about 200 requests through them later this month :)
I'll tip my hand a bit, I suggested Reclaim the Records because while I am time poor, if they take up fighting anything you suggested, I can send a directed donation towards that work. If you have someone else in mind who will take on these legal challenges in Illinois, I am interested.
