One word that was mentioned regularly during the most recent City Council campaign season was “transparency”. Interestingly, it has returned to the front of the newspapers because of a lack of transparency in the Kelly Thomas beating case. But what is transparency? And why is it good?
Transparency can easily be understood by contrasting it with what is called a black box. A black box is a term used to refer to a system that is opaque. You can see what goes into a black box and you can see what comes out of it, but you can’t see what it does to the inputs to produce the outputs. An ATM machine is one example. You can log in to an ATM (inputs) and get money and a receipt out (outputs) but you can’t look inside.
It’s not important to look inside the ATM because you don’t need to trust it. The trust required for the transaction lies with your bank. You can instantly check the amount that was withdrawn from your account by inquiring with your bank and getting a full report. And you can trust that your bank authenticates the devices that are allowed to submit transactions. This is why you can use a debit card scanner at a small liquor store without worrying about how the scanner works.
Sometimes you need to trust the system that provides you a service, such as the bank. This is why banks spend a lot of time telling you how they work. They need to establish a trust relationship with you. Banks produce reports, publish policies and staff names, and the staff is often eager to answer questions. Banks establish trust through a process of transparency.
For decades organizations have been touting the curative properties of transparency. Gorbachev used “glasnost” (openness) to promote freedom in the former Soviet Union (it worked beyond his wildest dreams). But transparency does not just benefit outside observers. CEO’s of large companies read press reports of the workings of their subsidiaries. The US administration has used CNN for years to see instant news of it’s remote operations. Even smaller organizations find that transparencies reveal insights. This is not possible with a black box where there is only one route for information to get to the top.
Opaqueness blinds the leaders as well as the observers.
E.D.Kain, writing about the Kelly Thomas beating on Forbes.com said, “Who [benefits] the most from increased police transparency? The answer is simple: honest cops. Honest cops who have nothing to hide benefit the most from police transparency and an end to police abuse. Honest police work is hard – much harder than the overt displays of power and aggression.”
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