If police names become secret, there is no way for the public to hold officers accountable, said Craig Futterman, a law professor at the University of Chicago who specializes in civil rights lawsuits and focuses on police brutality and racial discrimination.

“It is contrary to any notion of democracy or open governance,” he said. “There are plenty of exemptions in every state to freedom of information acts that protect the safety and security of public employees. This is overly broad, sweeping and utterly unnecessary.”

He called it contrary to a fundamental principal of policing: that the police are the public and the public are the police.

“Just in terms of community-police relationships and trust, how do police build relationships in their community if their names are secret?” he asked. “Police are special in a lot of ways. No other members of our government do we give the power to take away our freedom, the power to use force, the power to shoot and kill. … Too much is at stake to let the police operate in secrecy.”

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