EDITORIAL SUNSHINE IN L.A. EFFORT FOR TRANSPARENCY IN LAPD A GOOD START.

MONDAY might have been uncommonly cold for Californians. But it was a good day for sunshine throughout the state, because the mayor and a key senator vowed to open the window on LAPD secrecy.

Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero has distinguished herself as an advocate of openness in government as well as a legislative ally of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The Democratic senator from Los Angeles has fought for journalists to have access to interview prison inmates and was the author of the legislation that gave Villaraigosa control over the LAUSD, now in limbo since a Superior Court ruled it unconstitutional. She is serving both passions by pushing legislation that will overrule a state Supreme Court that prompted the LAPD to close Board of Rights hearings.

Although the hearings have been closed for more than a year despite media complaints, they only became a liability last week when the panel cleared the officer who shot 13-year-old Devin Brown after the Police Commission made the opposite finding.

Suddenly, the warnings about democracy being harmed by secrecy were apparent to every community member who questioned the contradicting police findings.

To their credit, the mayor, Police Chief William Bratton and the City Council recognized the inherent danger of keeping the community in the dark in important matters, and moved quickly. The public has a right to know the details when an officer uses deadly force.

Freedoms are lost incrementally; rarely do they go in one fell swoop. It's why the public must fight vigorously against every small loss of access to the government.