Torn From The Front Page: Public deserved to know police officer's identity sooner

on November 11, 2010 at 6:00 AM, updated November 11, 2010 at 8:01 AM

Plain and simple, the Saginaw Police Department was wrong to withhold the name of the officer who was shot twice during a drug raid in late October.

Detective Albert Fong’s identity did not become public until Nov. 3, when it appeared in court papers after the Saginaw County Prosecutors’ Office issued a felony arrest warrant for Stephen L. Huffman, 31, for the assault and attempted murder of Fong.

Huffman was shot after three officers on the Emergency Services Team returned fire. He now faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Why the holdup on releasing the officer’s name?

Once relatives have been notified, the public has a right to information.

Police officers are public employees. As such, the people who pay their wages deserve to be kept in the loop, just as they are in other, more run-of-the-mill cases.

Silence and secrecy of this sort by public officials and public agencies only serves to breed suspicion and distrust.

We have enough of that already.

In a news article just after the shooting, Detective Sgt. Joseph D. Dutoi said police weren’t releasing any information because it was “an ongoing investigation” and the state police were handling everything.

Would releasing the officer’s identity or the suspect’s have compromised the investigation?

No one said so.

What was said later was that the department was giving the officer time to sort out what had just happened to him before releasing his name.

Certainly, Fong had a lot to process after such a close brush with death. He was shot twice during the execution of the search warrant and owes his survival to the protective body armor he was wearing. He did not even require hospitalization.

We wish him well.

But the victims of crimes and their families are often not afforded this opportunity. Nor, for that matter, do police hold back on releasing the names of those arrested and charged with crimes.

The rules need to be applied evenly.

Police work is no picnic. It’s fraught with danger, especially in a city such as Saginaw. Sometimes, to protect the integrity of an investigation, department officials will release basic information, but aren’t immediately forthcoming with all the detailed information they have. We can accept that.

The rest of the time, transparency is what the public expects and deserves.