Both your series on the Maine State Police sharing of records and Bill Nemitz’s column on April 22 (“Feeling, more than ever, the weight of a police badge,” Page B1) are illustrative.
The responsibility that comes with the badge is part of the power that one who wears it wields. Transparency is the currency of effective and fair law enforcement and prosecution.
PBS has a documentary titled “Philly DA” airing currently on local channels. Having toiled in the criminal justice arena for 42 years in this jurisdiction and five in Philadelphia in the Federal Defender Office, I believe this program should be required viewing for all law enforcement officers and prosecutors in Maine.
While the problems that District Attorney Larry Krasner is exposing and dealing with properly in the City of Brotherly Love are less prevalent here, they exist. Is it reasonable to believe that each and every police officer involved shooting in this state is justified? The Maine Attorney General’s Office has so ruled.
If we have no Larry Krasners emerging here, perhaps an independent panel of experts would provide the transparency his efforts there have engendered.
Joseph D. Thornton
Falmouth
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