Maybe somebody needs to explain the concept of a chain-of-command to the brass at Little Rock's police department. Surely they've heard of the notion. It goes like this: The police answer to city officials, and those officials answer to We the People. As in Regnat Populus, which is not the motto on the state's seal just for ornamental purposes. For here the people rule. Or are supposed to.

Maybe there should be a class on the subject. Education never ends, you know. Such a course might prove a good education for newcomers to the city and its payroll, including Little Rock's chief of police, who's not only new but shows it when he goes along with keeping things from the public. And here in Little Rock, that public can be a mite touchy when it feels it's being left out of the loop. Which in a democracy is the equivalent of leaving the boss out.

Only a few days ago We the People were informed that, yes, Little Rock's police department would encrypt most of its radio communications. No longer could neighborhood-watch types, nosy reporters and local gadflies in general--or just Concerned Citizens--listen in as the cops seal off a street or chase down a burglar or do any number of other things police do every day, bless them.

FYI: Some $150,000 of the public's tax money was spent encrypting police radios so that the public could no longer listen in as public business was being done. What's more, few citizens, including city directors, knew the public was being kept in the dark till the deed--it's called encryption--was done. Neat. But not very responsible. Because it's not nice to try and fool the boss.

The public outcry was such that at the very next meeting of the mayor, top officials and city directors--which took place Tuesday evening--the whole bunch asked the brass at police headquarters the polite equivalent of What th'-hey?!

The answer to that question, which very much needed to be asked, was two-part:

(1) A bad guy could listen in on the cops and, one day, perhaps, hurt a good guy. (No need to go into detail, like there is no recorded instance of such a thing ever happening in Little Rock, Ark.)

(2) The bad guy could get away if he knew which way the cops were coming from. (That could happen, and may even have happened, but is so rare an occurrence a good basis on which to make general policy?)

In short, the public was offered hypotheticals and excuses. Anything but access. In short, the old run-around.

No responsible citizen wants to put cops in a bind--after all, they are there to serve and protect the rest of us--and we wouldn't want to get in their way or see a crook get away. But this kind of official secrecy? It seems like the very definition of an answer in search of a problem.

City officials like Mayor Mark Stodola and the police department itself talk a lot about Transparency and Listening to the Public and, ahem, "enlightening citizens about public safety issues and striving to gain community support in the suppression of criminal activity" (www.littlerock.org).

But after what the police department has pulled off with its radios, it all sounds like lip service.

The mayor and city directors told the police department to find a compromise, a new policy that would both protect police officers' safety and the public's right to know. Now we the local people should insist that the police department do just that. Promptly. Like a motorist pulling over to the side of the road when he spots that flashing blue light in his rear-view mirror and prepares to answer a few well-deserved questions. Like: What's your hurry, chief?

The police department's response to this simple request from authorities: Certainly, your honors. But until we can find that compromise, the radios stay encrypted. The public can listen to static until their betters decide what's best.

That doesn't sound like a compromise at all. Just a delaying tactic. Is it time to haul some folks in? Maybe that'd get their attention. The public's objections don't seem to have done the trick. If an ordinary citizen pulled this kind of thing, how long do you think it would be before he was charged with obstructing justice?

So how about this for a compromise when it comes to this "compromise"? Until an actual compromise is hammered out, keep the public fully informed by letting us listen to the cops' radio transmissions. Just as we did before this new policy was quietly put into effect and we the people were shut out.

What would it hurt? Especially since there never seemed to be any pressing reason for all this encryption in the first place.

In short, Chief, you and your associates got some 'splainin' to do. And not just explaining but changing. Pronto. For a right delayed is a right denied. And we the people have every right to know what's being done by our public servants. In our name and with our money. You do realize you're a public servant, don't you, Chief? Signed, The Boss.

Now a word or two about this idea of giving the media special electronic keys or radio codes or whatever it takes to un-encrypt the police department's radio traffic:

First, it turns out that the idea is, uh, legally dubious, to indulge in more than a bit of understatement. According to state law, which cops are supposed to obey and enforce, not ignore, no one outside law enforcement is allowed to carry around such decoding equipment.

But even before that objection to this bad idea was sniffed out, it was still a bad idea. The public is the public is the public. And the almighty Media have no more right to public information than the rest of the public does. The First Amendment isn't restricted to Privileged Characters like the press. Which has always been the essential problem with these "shield laws" that would shield the press but nobody else.

Anybody can file a Freedom of Information request. And, thankfully, a lot of anybodys have. Hey, it's America. Or was last time we looked, despite any president's Enemies List or any police department's decision to keep the public in the dark.

Also, how would a police chief or city manager or mayor decide just who's a member of the media? Just the press? Just the press plus television plus radio? What about bloggers or anybody with a computer, police radio or email? Which covers most folks these days.

No, let's not get bogged down in all that. Public information is public information. Let's keep it that way.

So, sirs with a badge, bring back the radio traffic. Right now. Lest we forget, all those radio transmissions are public information, too. With the emphasis on public. And cut out the sass.

Editorial on 08/07/2014