So let’s get this straight.

The Wilton Police Department, under investigation for allegedly failing to properly conduct investigations, won’t release the names of officers suspended from duty because their identities should be protected until the investigation is complete. The department won’t even say how many officers have been suspended.

Does anything in Wilton actually get solved? Even the ghost hunters who prowled the Wilton Home & Farm Museum detected some conclusive results. The town and police department, on the other hand, have instead offered spectral allegations and cloudy explanations for gravely serious issues.

Now the suspended officers’ identities are being held secret, against the best interests of Wilton citizens. And Maine’s freedom of information law, as well, since a request Wednesday by the newspaper for a public document – the Wilton Police Department’s duty roster – was denied to restrict our access to the officers’ names.

If the alleged conduct of Wilton police officers is considered detrimental enough to warrant suspension, then their alleged conduct warrants that their identities be known.

Before the suspensions, Wilton police were stripped of their ability to investigate juvenile sex crime cases. That duty went to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, per the order of the district attorney, Norm Crouteau, who informed the town of this decision in January.

An internal inquiry by the town’s new police chief, Dennis Brown, followed. The result has been indefinite paid suspensions of an indeterminate number of the department’s three duty officers. The sheriff’s office and Maine State Police will each boost its presence in Wilton while the town sorts this out.

Nothing about this situation is remotely positive. There are accusations that officers are insensitive toward alleged young victims of serious sexual crimes. Wilton’s police department has been essentially shut down by its new chief, who looks like he’s discovered a hornet’s nest.

This is a difficult situation for a new boss to face, but Brown’s obfuscation on the suspended officers only casts blame across the entire department. What could be understood as an effective managerial decision designed to resolve oustanding issues now appears to be an indictiment of the Wilton police by its leader.

Brown is right to address Croteau’s concerns, but the new chief needs to abide by basic freedom of information laws, and respect of the public trust, in doing so. The people of Wilton have an absolute right to know who is protecting their public safety, and who has been suspended from doing so.

It’s time to open this investigation, and shed light on what’s happened inside the department.

Coming clean about the suspensions is the start.