Montgomery created controversy
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery insisted the letter he wrote and sent to Valley cities and police agencies on May 8 was in every way unremarkable.
He had merely codified in writing what had been policy for three years, describing how prosecutors and police departments work together to determine what evidence can be released to media, he said. Montgomery accused The Arizona
Republic of overblowing the issue and argued there’s nothing new here.
But on Friday, top leaders at the city of Phoenix rebuffed the county attorney’s letter and policy, saying it “undermines transparency and would likely further strain police-community relations.”
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Councilwoman Thelda Williams asserted the independence of the Phoenix Police Department, the state’s largest, and backed their own chief, who unlike Montgomery, is working to make police work more transparent.
“During her time as Phoenix’s top law enforcement officer, Chief Jeri Williams has developed and implemented a thoughtful, commonsense process for how the Police Department releases critical incident records, and we believe that process should remain in place,” Stanton and Williams wrote.
“The decision of when and how to release records will be made by Phoenix officials, not those at Maricopa County.”
Montgomery responded with a cheeky series of tweets featuring Dos Equis’ “Most interesting man in the world.” Adding his own ripostes to the droll pitchman, Montgomery wrote, “Way to manufacture a controversy.”
Later he built upon the same meme, “Nothing like a paper creating a controversy so they can report on it. And then have all their minions retweet it. Way to go!”
We’ll grant Montgomery two points here. There is a controversy. And it was manufactured. But not by media.
Bill Montgomery was the shop foreman who cobbled together this teeming, fetid mess.
That was clear when a number of legal minds reacted badly to Montgomery’s letter and his audacity to use coercive tactics to try bend Valley police agencies to his will.
Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said if he had been Montgomery’s attorney he would have counseled him not to send the letter.
“It’s almost as if you don’t trust the police department to do a good job.”
We see in Montgomery a government official who has put the public’s right to know on low priority. For years now, Valley media has watched the flow of information from metro Phoenix police agencies slow to a trickle. Reporters have had to wrestle with prosecutors and police supervisors to gain access to police information that rightly belongs in the public domain.
Montgomery’s letter only adds to this disturbing devotion to secrecy.
By writing and sending it to Valley cities, he made a mistake. He outlined a policy that threatens to further restrict information from Valley police agencies and did it without a open conversation in the larger community.
We’re having that conservation now, but not on his terms.
And at least one city, not an inconsequential one, is telling him he can clap all he wants with his Dos Equis’ pitchman, but his own brand has gone stale.