Our take: Make it public.

Last week we were pleased to hear that our Selma City Council President George Evans and Mayor James Perkins Jr. both had copies of a draft of the police study.

This study has been many months in the making. Meanwhile,

the residents of Selma have wondered what is truly happening inside their police department, and what the city intends to do to strengthen it.

We’ve seen other cities with similar issues. About four hours north of here in Tupelo, that city’s council has been locked in arguments over a study that began as research into racial tensions among city police officers.

Like ours, the council in Tupelo has been reluctant to talk about or release hints of the study. Meanwhile, residents there have become antsy, waiting for word.

Well as the citizens of Tupelo continue to wait, the citizens of Selma now have word from their study.

Only, it’s uncertain if we’ll hear or see any results from the draft.

We would hope that our mayor and council would open up discussions about this draft study to the public. We would hope the public would have an opportunity to read the draft &045; or at least portions of it &045; before it becomes final.

After all, it’s the right thing to do.