Culture of Concealment: The Blue Curtain It has been called the “blue curtain”—a culture of secrecy that protects police officers from public scrutiny and legal examinations of alleged wrongdoing....

Culture of Concealment:

The Blue Curtain It has been called the “blue curtain”—a culture of secrecy that protects police officers from public scrutiny and legal examinations of alleged wrongdoing. Often police officials refuse to release video, officers’ statements, or even the names of the officers involved in incidences of alleged wrongdoing. The culture of secrecy appears to extend well beyond the values of individual officers and the police department. There are numerous ways a police officer’s misconduct is shielded from public and legal review by the criminal justice system. New York State, for example, offers great protection to police officers. The state’s civil rights code, Section 50-a, says that an officer’s personnel record cannot be publicly released or cited in court without a judge’s approval. Also, the U.S. Justice Department under Eric Holder consistently supported police officers every time an excessive-force case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.⁵⁰
Some states are taking steps to reduce “the blue curtain.” California, for example, has barred the use of grand juries to determine whether to prosecute a law enforcement officer in the death of a member of the public.⁵¹
This ban ensures that evidence related to the case will not be deemed secret and withheld from the public. Should greater efforts be taken to pierce the “blue curtain?”