Police survey should be released to public
January 21st, 2009 at 02:17pm Wally Haas
Whatever is in the results of an internal survey of the Rockford Police Department can’t be as embarrassing as what our imaginations think might be in the report — or can it?
The reluctance, which borders on defiance, of city officials to release the survey results adds to the distrust between city management and rank-and-file officers and feeds the voting public’s cynicism about government.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office considers the survey “public records which should be made available for public inspection.” Judge Ron Pirrello has twice ordered the survey’s release. Yet city leaders persist in keeping the results to themselves and plan to appeal Pirrello’s latest order.
In the absence of information, the void is filled with all kinds of theories. The distrust those theories create is the greatest embarrassment.
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2 Comments Add your own
1. unmanager | January 22nd, 2009 at 5:14 am
I certainly agree with your stance. As a taxpayer,I want to know what my money discovered on this survey. Must say it would seem to me,YOU, the local media,should make a more aggressive \"bully pulpit\" push,IF you truly believe in this issue. I cannot recall the particulars,but I remember during the \"Sunshine Week\",reading of ongoing FOIA requests submitted by this newspaper to the city and yet, AFTER that declared \"week of openness\", never heard another word. Did the city honor YOUR requests? Too often the public perceives a definite \"pro-Morrissey\" bias on the pages of this newspaper,and,in my opinion,it is justified. You could and should be more persistent in asking the tough questions of this mayor and let the public know when the questions are NOT answered. Will THIS particular issue warrant a big Sunday print editorial or just fade into the background of this blog site?
2. echo4charlie | January 23rd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I doubt that we’ll see it. It will further shake an already “shaky” opinion of our local police officers (although there are, just like in any profession, those who are good at what they do, and those who aren’t).
By blocking these results, that our tax dollars paid for, by the way, they are planting seeds of distrust among the taxpayers by trying to keep this information secure.
It does make us ask; “What is it that you don’t want us to see?”
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