Prairie State Wire

The Illinois State Police Special Investigations Unit has launched a new online tip line to solicit information from the public regarding potential misconduct by local officials. The unit focuses primarily on investigating public corruption and criminal misconduct carried out by elected officials, government bureaucrats, and political appointees at all levels of government.

"The online form is for suspected public corruption allegations only. Individuals may be unsure to which law enforcement agency or department they should report claims of public corruption," according to a press release. "Having allegations reported to one place will streamline the process and allow ISP to respond more quickly. ISP will triage all online submissions and determine the correct agency to handle the investigation."

The state police's newly introduced public corruption reporting portal is designed to collect information pertaining to allegations of government officials and employees exploiting their office for personal gain. This includes instances of contract fraud, embezzlement, bribery, kickbacks, extortion, bid rigging, influence peddling and graft.

The citizen complaint portal requires users to affirm the veracity of their allegations against public officials. It also requests the name and contact information of the person reporting alleged corruption, detailed descriptions of alleged misconduct, and the names of any witnesses.

Since its inception in 2020, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has opened 82 cases. These include numerous joint cases with federal law enforcement agencies.

In one instance, the SIU investigated allegations of theft and official misconduct against a former township road commissioner accused of using a township credit card for personal purchases. "The road commissioner pled guilty and was sentenced to 18 months of probation and $27,300 restitution," state police said in a statement.

Illinois has consistently ranked among the most corrupt states in America. Chicago has held the dubious distinction of being ranked as the most corrupt city in the U.S. for four consecutive years. In 2022 alone, there were 32 political corruption convictions in the Northern District of Illinois - an increase of ten convictions from the previous year - according to a recent report.