The plaintiffs in these cases are often the media, including the Better Government Association. They also include relatives of citizens injured and killed in confrontations with police officers, activists and attorneys preparing civil lawsuits on behalf of criminal defendants. The police department accounted for more than two-thirds of the overall payouts — although sometimes it was a co-defendant with other oversight agencies, including the mayor’s office. To determine whether similar patterns existed in other government departments, the BGA also examined public records lawsuits filed against nine other agencies from the Chicago Housing Authority to the governor’s office. None demonstrated the Chicago Police Department’s pattern of repeated denials for similar records.