City Police Caught In Their Own Web

Anne Arundel County police spokesman Justin Mulcahy has no problem deleting comments he finds objectionable. People cannot post to the department's Facebook "Wall" but can comment on specific postings put up by the department.

"Most of the posts we've been getting are pretty positive, such as, 'Thank you for being transparent,' " Mulcahy said. "We like the connectivity it gives us."

But, the county spokesman added, "If there is anything that we deem to be negative, inappropriate or derogatory in nature, we remove it."

Government can sell itself all it wants on its Web page. But opening a social network site and then shutting down the social networking seems to undermine the very intent of the endeavor.

City cops may cringe at the criticism, but at least residents are going to the page and reading about police programs and arrests as they sound off about crime and government.

Once you invite the public in, it's difficult to shut citizens out.

It's even more difficult to explain why.