Here's a question worth asking: when did the San Francisco City Attorney's Office get into the business of hunting down leakers?

Reports have surfaced that the City Attorney's Office has launched an investigation into a leaked document — and if that doesn't set off alarm bells, you might want to check your batteries. This kind of move is virtually unprecedented in San Francisco city government, and the implications should concern anyone who values transparency and accountability.

Let's be clear about what's happening here. Government documents get leaked all the time. Sometimes it's whistleblowers exposing waste or corruption. Sometimes it's staffers frustrated that the public isn't being told the truth. Sometimes it's petty office politics. But regardless of the motive, the appropriate response from a city attorney's office is almost never to go full internal affairs on its own people.

The City Attorney is supposed to be the public's lawyer — representing the interests of San Francisco residents, not acting as an enforcement arm to protect bureaucrats from embarrassment. When a government office prioritizes finding out who talked over addressing what was said, that tells you everything about where their priorities lie.

As one SF resident put it, "Why is the City Attorney's Office 'investigating' a leaked document? It's unprecedented and alarming." Hard to argue with that.

This is the kind of chilling effect that makes government less accountable, not more. If city employees know that sharing information — even information the public arguably has a right to see — could trigger a formal investigation, they'll think twice before speaking up. And in a city already drowning in opaque bureaucracy, the last thing we need is another reason for insiders to stay silent.

We don't know yet what was in the leaked document. But here's a safe bet: if it weren't embarrassing to someone in power, nobody would be investigating anything. San Francisco taxpayers deserve to know what's being hidden — and why their City Attorney thinks playing detective is a better use of resources than, say, prosecuting actual crime.