STILL WAITING FOR OFFICIAL WORD ON FBI's INQUIRY

Nearly a year after the melee on Good Hope Street, many Cape Girardeau residents are still looking for some official announcement of the FBI's investigation. Eight persons were injured that June night, and there are still wounds throughout the community that have yet to heal.

In the days after the melee, there were heated accusations that the police department and other law-enforcement officers acted improperly. In all, 10 individuals were arrested. An editorial in this newspaper urged the police department to ask for an independent review of what happened outside the Taste Lounge. Shortly thereafter, FBI agents began interviewing. Agents talked to officers from all the law-enforcement agencies, as many as could be found of the estimated 150 people on the street during the incident and neighbors along Good Hope Street.

As it turns out, the official request for the inquiry came not from the police department but from the sister of two of the men arrested. She claimed racial slurs and other actions by police provoked the confrontation.

As is customary with federal investigations, not much information is ever made available while interviews are being conducted and assessments are being made. The exhaustive interviews took only a matter of days, and recommendations were sent to the U.S. Justice Department within a few weeks.

And then nothing.

A few weeks ago, after the Southeast Missourian learned copies of the FBI interviews were being circulated among lawyers, the public got its first peek at the inquiry process. Those perfunctory interviews confirmed what had been widely reported already: Police believed they acted appropriately; those involved in the brawl believed they had been provoked.

Then last week it became apparent that the Justice Department inquiry had concluded. There was talk of a "report" that was being sent to officers and others involved in the incident. The report turned out to be letters to police officers. The letters said the Justice Department had concluded there were no actions by officers during the melee that warranted prosecution. Meanwhile, all but two of the 10 men arrested last June have had their day in court.

It is disturbing that no official announcement of the findings has been made public. Officers who said they received the letter didn't want to share it. City officials said they didn't even bother to make copies of the letter. The Justice Department says it doesn't tell the public about findings of investigations unless charges are filed.

So where does that leave us? As could be expected, those who called for the investigation and hoped the Justice Department would find fault with law-enforcement officers are more than a little disappointed. They also are unhappy that they haven't received any official notification from anyone about the conclusion of the probe.

The city has taken some extraordinary steps since last June to open lines of communication with city leaders who would like to see an improved relationship with the police department, particularly in the south end. Those community representatives have made an earnest effort to create a meaningful dialogue. But when it comes to a final decision about the FBI investigation, they -- and the rest of the city -- are left to figure out on their own what the findings were.

What makes all of this all the more surprising is that, from the perspective of the police department, the FBI's inquiry produced good news. Or so we're told. It is hard to understand why city officials wouldn't want officially to remove any cloud from officers who thought they were doing their jobs responsibly when things got so out of hand on Good Hope Street.

Failure to be open about these matter invites distrust rather than laying to rest accusations that appear to be unfounded. Residents of this city are entitled to more than that.