Washington ranks in the top three states in the country when it comes to government transparency. But the state rate is far from a perfect score, and a local case involving a Yakima police officer helps reveal why.
The national Center for Public Integrity just issued its State Integrity Investigation rankings for 50 states. None got an A, though Washington did place third with a score of 83, a B-minus, behind New Jersey and Connecticut. The center based its rankings across 14 government categories that included access to information, one that is a problem right now in Yakima.
A Yakima police sergeant has been put on paid leave amid accusations of misconduct, and although the police department has finished its investigation, city officials refuse to say why. After learning of the developments, the Yakima Herald-Republic filed a public records request March 9 seeking a copy of the police department's internal investigation of the officer. City officials, claiming it's an active investigation until the acting city manager decides on discipline, refuse to release the report, saying a state Public Records Act exemption allows them to do so.
Well, that's subject to interpretation. Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, says the city is opening itself to a lawsuit. Nixon, a former Republican state legislator, says the exemption applies only to protect an individual's privacy or to prevent harm to an investigation. Nixon says documents in this case don't pass a two-pronged legal test in which a release would be "highly offensive to a reasonable person" and if the subject at hand is not a legitimate concern to the public.
This is the city's police department; the taxpaying public does have a concern. And if officers are behaving badly -- we have, alas, a bit of a history with this -- the public needs to know. One might recall last year's incident in which two officers went off to training in Spokane and spent nearly $400 of city money on beer and covered it up on expense reports; the city tried to block release of that information, too. Four times since 2010, the city has tried to stonewall on reports detailing officer misconduct.
The officer in question, Sgt. Erik Hildebrand, last year was the subject of a complaint that said he got a free motel room for himself and a young woman under the guise of conducting a drug sting. While allegations were never proven that he used his police credential for "personal purposes," Hildebrand was reprimanded for violating the department's officer safety policies.
Last week, city officials confirmed Hildebrand was the target of another investigation. While that needs to run its course, it shouldn't prevent release of information about the first investigation.
Effective police work starts with gaining the confidence of the citizenry. Continued misbehavior by those entrusted to enforce the law undermines that essential trust, as do government efforts to keep citizens in the dark about what its employees are up to.
The pressure in Washington builds to exempt more government documents from the state's Public Records Act. An initial total of 10 exemptions to the law has grown to more than 300; an effort to examine those exemptions -- call them "loopholes" if you wish -- has lagged due to funding cutbacks and lack of political will.
This state is considered a national model for government transparency. But the city of Yakima case proves that even model statutes require constant vigilance over what our governments are doing.