Whatever it is, it’s not about the public’s right to know city business.

The chief of Peoria’s Police Department got quoted in the Journal Star saying that he is going to use city resources to track down the identity of the police officer who tipped off the media about a minor scandal involving Peoria police officers.

You might have read about the details. An officer was driving a police vehicle off duty. He was at a bar way out in North Peoria, and left the bar, allegedly drunk. He wrecked the car. Rather than face the music, he conspired with other officers to fake a stolen vehicle report.

The whole semi sordid story collapsed; apparently in part there was an officer who spilled the beans to the media. The press started asking questions and the story got exposed.

Now, we in the media and the general public call this person who in on the inside and tells a “whistleblower.”

But that’s not how Chief Settingsgaard sees it. This is what he told the Journal Star on November 20:

“We are not speaking of a ‘whistle-blower’ here, who righteously exposes illegal acts or corruption,” Settingsgaard wrote in an email. “Many of our investigations, both criminal and internal, are necessarily confidential in nature or at least have components whose confidentiality are critical to protecting the integrity of investigations and/or protecting the rights of employees.”

Try that if you wreck your company car, then lie to cops about the car being stolen.

Tell the cops that your employer has the right to conduct an investigation while protecting the confidentiality of the investigation. Tell the cops that putting this in a police report would violate the integrity of the investigation and fail to protect the rights of all employees.

See how far that gets you.

I’ve heard it said that Peoria doesn’t really have a problem with integrity. That was because when Peoria cops do dumb, stupid stuff, the public finds out about it, drags them out and punishes the officers involved. Publicly.

Well, that’s not what Settingsgaard wants in this case. There’s no reason to believe anything would have been done to these officers who tried to lie their way out of this.

This isn’t Chicago. We don’t have officers who use their badges to line their pockets, knowing that their badges will get them out of any trouble.

At least I don’t THINK so.

If Steve Settingsgaard has his way, we could have a corrupt, Chicago-style department.

You know, one where would- be whistle-blowers know to keep their mouths shut.

Peoria City Council members are supposed to be sensitive to this sort of thing. I’d start asking questions about this at upcoming candidate forums.