Danger Will Robinson! DANGER!!!

This has the potential for being bad. Very bad:

• In a case some argue could throw open the long-standing secrecy behind police internal investigations, the 4th District Court of Appeals in Springfield has ruled internal affairs files are a public record regardless of the outcome of the probe.

  Attorneys specializing in Illinois public records law said Thursday it is the first such ruling of its kind in the state and therefore binding on trial courts statewide. It could also have repercussions for long-running complaints about Chicago police brutality.

Great. Compelled testimony rears its ugly head again. Remember, you have less rights in an administrative investigation than a criminal one. You are ordered to answer questions. You are ordered to testify give information against your own self interests. You are assumed to be in possession of facts and recollections of incidents merely by your presence on a scene.

And if a single error or omission can be attributed to anything you put on paper, you will be fired.

Not only that, the bottom-feeders are going to use this civilly to ruin cops across the board. Anything you own, anything you've worked for, anything you've accomplished by dint of hard work serving and protecting is going to have to be sold, pawned or given away to defend yourself in a Crook County courtroom with a juries who already give felons millions.

• The Sangamon County Sheriff and the State Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor—who argued the case—have 35 days to decide whether to appeal the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court

The Local and State FOP better get on the ball here. The National Lodge might not be a bad idea either.