From the Publisher's Desk: You deserve to know what’s being done with your police chief

More than two weeks ago, Glenrock Police Chief David Theel was placed on administrative leave with pay by Mayor Bruce Roumell.

It was done quietly and quickly. In a normal situation, such a move involving a key town government employee would happen just as quickly but rarely as secretly as this was done. The basic details behind that “normal situation” generally would be widely known, usually stemming from some public incident that is already receiving plenty of new coverage and public attention.

That isn’t this case.

In fact, even through the end of last week, very few people actually knew the real reason for administrative leave with pay for a chief who, until that happened, seemed to enjoy the support of the general public. The chief apparently didn’t even have a clear understanding of why he was on leave, either.

Rumors, of course, have eked out of various corners of the community about what is going on, but rumors and innuendoes are not the same as documented facts or even explanations from the key sources such as the mayor.

Meanwhile, the public is left in the dark, wondering what is going on with their police department, whether there is a trust issue with officers or the chief, whether the mayor overstepped, simply taking political retaliation against the chief or is honestly taking charge of a bad situation.

Who knows?

The Independent filed a public documents request for a wide range of files and emails and text exchanges in hopes of getting some answers to those questions.

Not surprisingly, the town turned the request over to its attorneys, who declined some items but agreed to compile others – but with a clear message that the paper would be charged for the costs of compiling those documents under a fairly new law allowing that.

It is unfortunate the town believes providing public documents on an important public issue comes down to dollars and cents, but it’s not surprising given how  little the officials who know the facts want them to be made public. That is based on how many times the mayor and others have declined to comment or not returned calls in recent weeks.

We will keep digging, but we need your help, too. If you demand some answers from your town leaders, you may actually start to see some admissions in the wall of silence.

– Matt Adelman