Bluffton Police Department invites distrust

It’s a shame that the Bluffton Police Department has chosen to take the same road to opacity as the Beaufort County Board of Education, especially at a time when law enforcement agencies across the country are struggling to maintain public confidence in the wake unjustified killings of civilians by officers.

By changing its policy to make it more difficult to obtain full narratives of police incidents, the department appears to not understand that greater transparency leads to greater trust.

The same can be said for the department’s failure to investigate a complaint about officers drinking on the job and Chief Joseph Manning’s dismissive comment that if the officers had been drinking, that he was confident that they were not drunk and had used good judgment. Really? Because I would think that officers drinking on the job was the definition of bad judgment. What if they were required to draw their weapons after consuming alcohol? Would the chief still maintain that his officers were exercising good judgment?

Over the past four years, we have seen the steady erosion of trust in a school system where the head has admitted to ethics violations, and where a weak board is afraid to open up its process to the same people who elected them. We don’t elect police departments but we have the right to expect that they will perform their public duties in a manner that breeds confidence and respect. These actions by the Bluffton Police Department invite only distrust and cynicism.

This story was originally published October 6, 2017 at 8:16 AM with the headline "Bluffton Police Department invites distrust."