S

ay it to yourself:

Tuscaloosa Police know best.

Say it out loud. Preach it 'til you believe it:

TUSCALOOSA POLICE KNOW BEST.

Just pray it's true. Because they get the badge and they get the gun and they – as Alabama cornerback Tony Brown found out the other week – get the pepper spray. And you get – well, you just get the choice of believing them or – go stuff yourself.

The Tuscaloosa Police Department peppered Brown this month, then arrested him on charges of resisting arrest and failure to obey. Then the department issued a press release telling its side of the story: that he got what he deserved.

And maybe he did.

The department would not, however, turn loose of his arrest report, or a report of any kind. Sgt. Brent Blankley said, in essence ... that's all you're gonna get.

Which is a scary proposition all by itself. It became even scarier after AL.com reporter Michael Casagrande interviewed multiple witnesses to the Brown arrest who gave completely different accounts of the incident. They described aggressive and unnamed police officers who followed Brown, taunted him, sprayed him and took him downtown.

Maybe they were covering for him. Maybe they were right.

But from Tuscaloosa Police? That's all you're gonna get.

That's all you're gonna get, despite Alabama law and court precedent that makes it clear that basic information on incident and arrest reports is a matter of public record. We know this well, because The Birmingham News sued former Birmingham Police Chief Arthur Deutcsh to set that precedent.

That's all you're gonna get, despite a handful of Attorneys General opinions – including those from Jeff Sessions and Bill Pryor – that insist it is "a well-established principle" that the who-what-when-wheres on the front of standard incident reports, including the names of the arresting officers, should be available to anybody for inspection.

Current AG Luther Strange's office puts it like this:

"Police reports and arrest records except for confidential information or information that is part of an on-going investigation would be public record."

Tuscaloosa just thumbs its nose. Because Tuscaloosa Police know best.

"We never release arrest reports," Blankley said today. In fact, he said, In his six years in the business, the department has never released an arrest report.

He said an incident/offense report was not initially written on Brown's arrest. He said it was not required. However he said one could now be requested – eight days after the arrest – and its release would be considered by city of Tuscaloosa lawyers.

Tuscaloosa still believes it has a right to information. And you don't.

It is of course sad that we make an issue of this when a football player is arrested, and barely offer a peep during the other 5,000 arrests a year the TPD holds to its vest. The public needs to feel confident it has all the information it deserves.

There was another memorable incident a few years back that might have been a wakeup call. Alabama star Rashad Johnson got popped for disorderly conduct, a charge that was later dismissed with no fine or court costs after he agreed to perform some community service.

Johnson's defense had claimed that multiple videotapes of that incident simply did not show what Tuscaloosa Police claimed happened.

Basic records of crimes committed by people against the state of Alabama -- or the city of Tuscaloosa -- must be available to the people.

And city police departments, like all other law enforcement agencies, cannot operate with impunity, as if the law is beneath them or does not apply. We must be able to trust the police.

And not simply because they tell us ....

Tuscaloosa Police know best.

John Archibald is a columnist for Alabama Media Group. Email him at jarchibald@al.com.