Sun Editorial: The secret police

The taxpayers have shelled out millions of dollars for a new, state-of-the-art digital emergency dispatch system for police, fire-rescue and other public safety agencies in Alachua County. And now that they have it, the bureaucrats who run the system intend to lock the public out.

The message that the Radio Management Board sent this week in refusing to allow the news media access to its encrypted system was simply this: Taxpayers, mind your own business. If we think there's something you ought to know about what we're doing, we'll send a press release.

That's not acceptable. Police officers and fire and rescue worker are just about the only public employees who literally have the power to make instant life or death decisions. News reporters have always been able to scan police and fire frequencies to find out when emergencies - a bank robbery, a fire, traffic pileups - occur. It is the job of reporters to pass on what they learn to their readers, listeners and viewers; to the public, to the taxpayers.

And although police and fire fighters might not always welcome the media's presence on the scene, the "watchdog" function reporters perform does nonetheless help to maintain public confidence in the professionalism of law enforcement and fire and rescue agencies. (To their credit, both Sheriff Steve Oelrich and GPD Chief Norman Botsford support continued public access to emergency dispatch.)

Will public confidence long hold now that the system has gone undercover? With official silence, will there inevitably come the temptation to cover up acts of incompetence at the scene of a disaster, or police misconduct? Can taxpayers continue to trust their public safety employees to make life and death decisions when technology turns the police force into secret police?

We think the Radio Management Board has made a terrible error of judgment in deciding to lock the people out of the public's business. We trust Gainesville and Alachua County commissioners will quickly intervene on behalf of their constituents; and on behalf of open government.

Contents © 2008 by David Schoenberger