Editorial: Police night shift — What just happened?

It was stunning back in September when Tiverton Police accused one of their own of spending nights at home when he was being paid to work, and with ordering the whole night shift into “quiet time” so he wouldn’t be bothered.

But more astonishing by a long shot is the sudden, silent resolution to it all.

In a split vote, the town council last week agreed to settle the town’s case against Lt. Timothy Panell. Charges, all 58 of them, essentially go away. The lieutenant is not required to pay Tiverton taxpayers back for any of those hours he allegedly didn’t work. He evidently gets to retire with clean record intact (after one-year filing). And by some secret pact, neither side will speak ill of the other.

That’s all Tiverton residents need to know about it, say those in charge. Don’t even bother asking.

With all due respect, that is scarcely all that people in Tiverton need to know. The public has a very real need and right to know what was going on its police department after hours and why nobody can talk about it.

For instance

• What caused an entire 58-charge case to vanish into thin air?

• Why did council members need to muzzle themselves with a ‘non-disparagement clause?’ This isn’t some private sector corporate case. This is about a public police department, public money, public trust.

• And what sort of ‘counterclaims’ was the town worried that Lt. Panell might try?

• Was something amiss with the investigation, the accusations? And speaking of that investigation, why did the Tiverton chief call in the Bristol police chief to help out — why not his own detectives or State Police?

• Is this some sort of standoff where both sides have something on each other?

• What of the lieutenant’s pension. Is it intact?

• How much are the legal fees and who is paying?

• What of the taxpayers? They are expected to pay the bills for a whole do-nothing shift — weeks and months on end; pay what by now must be colossal legal bills, and pay a lifetime pension and benefits for a 47-year-old officer hauled into court for obtaining town money under false pretenses. And they are expected to fork over this money without explanation — none of your business?

Perhaps a few of these questions are unfair, but that’s the cost of secrecy. Imaginations are left to wander.

Tiverton residents, those with the most at stake in this mess, have been left in the dark.

They deserve a full accounting of what on earth just happened.