Bill Toohey, the longtime public face of the Baltimore County Police Department, is gone, to be replaced by a uniformed officer in front of the cameras. It's a loss, not just for the media that grew to trust Bill, but for the citizens as well.

With Bill, they got a person who spoke and sounded like them, who could translate the most arane police verse into English. As former city police spokesman Robert W. Weinhold Jr. told me: "The most important message is the message received."

I'll let Nick Madigan's story on line and in today's print edition speak more about Bill (he also has a Facebook page). I don't know whether it matters that a police agency has a civilian or a sworn cop as it's mouthpiece; there are various schools of thought.

In one corner: police officers know the ins and outs of the department, are trusted by cops who don't trust outsiders, and can explain to the public how cops work and think. Even departments with civilian spokespeople like to have uniformed cops addressing the public at crime scenes. They say it adds credibility to the reports.

In the other corner: citizen spokespeople can challenge the police command in ways sworn rank and file cannot, can find ways around the bureaucracy, bring a fresh, outside perspective to a problem and add credibility when something controversial is going down. As Weinhold said, people may trust the spokesman in a suit to defend the department and see a uniformed cop as part of a coverup.

The Baltimore Police Department has had a civilian PIO for as long as anyone can remember, but they've hired people from diverse backgrounds. Two in recent years were cops in the spokesperson's office who had to resign to take the chief spokesperson job. Two others had been reporters for local television stations who had to quit to take the job.

As Prince George's County spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis told me: "I like the civilians because many times they bring experience in the media that our sworn officers just done't have. I think they can give the chief a fresh look on things. But the sworn commanders have an intimate knowledge of the police department. Much of what our PIOs do is educate the public through reporters as to what our police officers so. It's invaluable to have a police PIO who can explain police procedures. Getting information inside a police organization to give to a reporter is many times challenging. ... Cops are a funny bunch. Many times they will not trust a civilian to give them information." And, he added, "The uniformed officer in front of the camera is able to explain police procedures better than a civilian."

At the same time, Ellis said one of his biggest challenges is to get his police spokespeople to talk like a civilian. "We have to get them out of policespeak. That's where a civilian PIO excels. They talk in a language people can understand."

And that's why this is important to people. Police agencies are communicating not to other cops but to the public. A terse 'no comment' or "we can't tell you because it's part of the investigation' leaves too many people wondering why they're not being told something. A civilian might be able to explain it better. Cops are paramilitary and are used to short answers and unused to giving explanations. Follow oders. But the public demands more.

Cops might want to keep news of a serial rapist from the public to avoid raising alarm or thinking that their investigation will be ruined if details get out. A sworn cop may feel compelled to agree, or may in fact agree. But a civilian spokesperson might argue that the community needs to know that a rapist is out there and if the public learns they weren't warned of the danger they'll be upset.

Bill was good about things like that. When a county police sergeant e-mailed crime summaries to a community group but got upset when that same information wound up in the paper (he threatned to cut off residents who sent the info to the media) Bill stepped in to remind him and others that if he sent the info to the community, then he made it public and he can't control it after that.

In 2006, my colleague Nick Madigan wrote this about the way Bill handled a big story: