Once again, and for an uncountable time now, Richland County Sheriff Andy Hires, shown above at the most recent county board meeting (where he actually attended, a rarity) August 8, has been negligent in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests issued by Disclosure for mere electronic images of mugshots from the county jail, of which Hires is in charge. The request was submitted by Disclosure on August 2; public officials have five working days (essentially, one week) from time of issuance to respond, meaning the response should have been submitted Aug. 9, but it was not, and Disclosure had to submit a reminder (as a second request would have been futile, since it was past deadline) on Aug. 10. Hires has been responding in recent months only intermittently, and, like prosecutor David Hyde, apparently believes he doesn’t have to answer to media inquiries (or at least, answer only the media he “likes.”) Disclosure is seeking remedies for this blatant disregard of 5 ILCS 140, the LAW that governs response by public officials to public inquiry (and not just media inquiry) to requests for public information.