Police study a case of smoke and mirror

Cobourg Mayor Peter Delanty did some fancy foot work Monday night as he danced around reports the town was holding on to an OPP policing study.
A local radio station, using anonymous sources, reported the mayor and town's CEO were in possession of a controversial policing study done for the county. Meanwhile, the newspapers were full of unhappy Port Hope councillors bemoaning the delays by OPP in producing a report. One article last week claimed the study would not be done until September.
However, the radio story source only got part of the story correct. It turns out Cobourg only has its own portion of the study and it was presented on April 2. A full briefing was supposed to have taken place last week.
Instead, the mayor told council town staff is reviewing the results to ensure accuracy. In the process, he lambasted the radio station for mistaken reports and a failure to call to confirm the information.
An editorial on the radio corrected the mayor, saying a phone call was made, but went unreturned.
The issue around the quality or veracity of the journalism is a straw man meant to divert the public's attention away from the more serious issue: why is an OPP report on the future of the town's policing being kept secret? Proper procedure would be to accept the report in open council and instruct staff to do a full review. Instead, Cobourg residents see another example of the star chamber effect where there is no transparency and the taxpayers are treated like children, getting information spoon-fed to them whenever it suits those in power.
The recent decision by council not to allow a Q&A session after meeting and the holding back of this report only go to show the distain the old boys on council have for the public.