About those private police, Gov Ducey...

Lots of mumblings and grumblings about Gov. Doug Ducey's sudden bill to create an inspector general's office to keep an eye out for fraud and waste.

Ducey's bill comes in the final week of committee hearings at the Legislature, meaning if you want to weigh in or have some time to actually consider specifics of the bill, too bad.

If the budget was a bullet train, this is more like a non-stop express. Not quite as lightning fast, but plenty quick enough to feel the blur as it rockets by passes by on its way to becoming law.

Then again, what really is there to talk about?

A powerful governor, backed by dark money now further consolidating his power with his own secret police?

Hey, what's not to like?

House Bill 2420 cleared its only committee hearing on Wednesday, on a party line vote.

Under the bill, the new IG will carry a badge, have subpoena power in his pocket and report directly to the governor. The office will be staffed with a handful of inspectors.

Ducey's private police force is conceived as a secret agency. On Day One, Ducey promised a transparent administration but thus far looking into his operations is like looking into a train window coated with mud as it barrels by.

Can't be done.

So here's your chance to put your actions where your talking points are, governor.

Fix this bill. It's not good enough to simply publish a report on "some" of the IG's findings. It's not even good enough to provide a final report, once an investigation is completed.

Ducey's private police force should operate as the public ones do. Once an investigation is complete, the reports and all backup material used to arrive at a conclusion, must be laid out before the public.

To do otherwise – to have a subpoena carrying police force that is unaccountable to the public -- would be unthinkable.

To quote from that well-known authority on all things, Wikipedia: "Secret police forces are accountable only to the executive branch of the government, sometimes only to a dictator."

Hmmmm.