From Carolina Weekly (6/4/10): Most folks believe in the idea of open government. I believe the buzz word these days is "transparency."
But unless a particular issue affects them, they don’t think about importance of fighting for open meetings and public records every day. If you don’t protect the public’s right to know, government officials tend to forget about the laws governing their work – and slowly you have a harder time getting information when you want it.
I believe Huntersville Police Chief Phil Potter is the latest public official to demonstrate this very point.
Chief Potter has ordered an internal investigation to determine how the copy of a watch commander’s log made its way to the Herald Weekly newsroom. “This document leaving this building has compromised the integrity of this department,” he told Herald Editor Josh Lanier last week.
I agree that the integrity of the Huntersville Police Department has been questioned – but not by the actions of a public-minded person who showed the highest integrity by getting that document to us. Because that document showed a Huntersville commissioner in the act of misusing Huntersville’s 911 system, a Huntersville police officer and, apparently, the chief himself.