Trust is crucial

Public-safety officials won’t join this network if they don’t trust FirstNet—and they’re not going to trust FirstNet, if they think Fitzgerald’s allegations were swept under the rug by an internal investigation.  For that reason, I think the U.S. Department of Justice should back off on its effort to squash the public release of FirstNet-related e-mails written by Fitzgerald—the sheriff of Story County, Iowa—using his work e-mail account. When I first heard of this, my first thought was, “What are they trying to hide?” If that was my first thought, it seems reasonable to think that it also was the first thought of many public-safety officials who FirstNet soon will be courting.

I found an anonymous quote on the Internet that I believe captures the spirit of this situation: “It takes years to build trust, but only suspicion—not proof—to destroy it.”

Ginn and his cohorts may as well get used to this. FirstNet is going to make a great many moves and decisions as this network slowly begins to take shape—and every single one of them is going to encounter intense scrutiny. The only way to handle that is to be open and transparent. Welcome to the fish bowl.