Perhaps because the NYPD is bigger than the FBI and has anti-aircraft capabilities, The New York Civil Liberties Union believes New Yorkers should at least have the right to know Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's schedule.
They've filed a lawsuit on behalf of Leonard Levitt, a former Newsday reporter who covers the NYPD in an online column, who has repeatedly been denied access to Kelly's whereabouts and told such information could threaten the police commissioner's security, The New York Daily News reports.
"There is no good reason for Commissioner Kelly to withhold this information from the public," NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman told The News. "Even President Obama's public schedule appears every day on the White House's website. If it's safe for the leader of the country to disclose his schedule, then it's safe for the NYPD commissioner to do the same."
The NYPD had no immediate comment.
This isn't the first time New York politicians have been accused of being too elusive.
And last year, City Councilman Peter Vallone failed to pass legislation that would require a sitting mayor to publicly report travels whenever he or she leaves the continental U.S. or is more than 250 miles from the city for longer than 24 hours. As New York prepared for the blizzard last year, Mayor Bloomberg was, unbeknownst to city officials, vacationing in his Bermuda bungalow. Bloomberg later apologized for his administration's botched response to the snowstorm.