Contrary to what you might have heard, change isn’t so frightening. In fact, the change announced this week by Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick is cause for celebration.

Kirkpatrick, on the job less than two months, said her agency and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office will begin making a daily log of their activity available – first to the news media and soon thereafter to the public at large – via the Internet. No excessive paperwork, no lawyers, no prolonged delays. It will just be there, quickly accessible, a rolling log of the calls officers receive and a record of how they spend their shifts.

Given Washington state’s trailblazing public records act, such a step hardly seems bold. But it is in sharp contrast with the policies that have prevailed in both local departments for the past couple of decades.

Kirkpatrick and Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich are relatively new to their jobs, but they already have shown a more responsible attitude than their predecessors about the openness and accountability citizens deserve from those they trust to carry badges, guns and Tasers – and to use them.

Adequately correcting misguided practices will require additional changes, but the rolling 24-hour log Kirkpatrick promised this week will be an encouraging beginning. It will give citizens and reporters an overview of what law enforcement officers are dealing with and an idea of which reports and records to ask for when they want to know more.

It remains to be seen how expeditiously more detailed reports will be provided when requested. And whether the departments will redact with a heavy hand or light.

Keep in mind, these are public records about public activity and the law expects them to be accessible except in limited instances where legitimate reasons support closure.

The state Attorney General’s Public Records Deskbook notes that the law recognizes 34 categories of records that are exempt from disclosure. It points out that exemptions allow, but don’t require, officials to withhold or redact information covered by those 34 categories.

”(T)o the extent that no person’s right to privacy would be invaded by disclosure of the information contained in a record, an agency may waive an exemption if it chooses to do so,” the deskbook says.

Since being considered for her current job, Kirkpatrick has said she is committed to a transparent operation. Recently, when a private consultant hired by the city recommended a number of revisions in the Spokane Police Department’s internal affairs procedures, Kirkpatrick said the suggestions were consistent with policies she was familiar with in other departments where she has worked.

Those are signs of a progressive attitude that has been needed in this community’s law enforcement leadership structure. The past week’s announcement offers evidence that Kirkpatrick intends to follow through.

Her confidence in moving the department away from flawed, closed policies is laudable. Openness protects upstanding, professional officers from the suspicion of misconduct and cover-ups. Quick access to newsworthy records allows media organizations to inform the public promptly. And citizens, besides getting timely information, avoid the legal bills that mount up when local governments land in court trying to defend indefensible decisions.

If Kirkpatrick and Knezovich deliver on this first step and the others that need to follow, the benefits will be widespread. It will be, in Knezovich’s words, “a good thing for the police, the media and the public.”