Transparency cop-out

The New York Police Department is outfitting ever more officers with body cameras to ensure that contested interactions with the public are captured in living color. Yet it won’t reveal the most basic information about a potentially serious case of misconduct. The hypocrisy is painful. The facts as we know them: A police officer was charged with using a banned chokehold — the same maneuver that caused the death of Eric Garner in Staten Island in 2014.

After his departmental trial, which was open to the public, as all such trials are, he was found guilty.

Then, marking the first time Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill has done so since taking over as commissioner last year, the commissioner overturned the judge’s ruling.

The NYPD will not release the name of the officer or any other details of the case, citing a state statute, section 50-a of Civil Rights Law, that previous administrations have interpreted to permit, if not necessitate, public disclosure in such cases.

There’s an old saying about democracy dying in darkness. Public trust, which the NYPD has worked hard to nurture under this mayor and police commissioner, does too.