It was bad enough, Daniel McCracken and Lori Little say, that an irate state trooper pounded on their door at 1:45 a.m. and confronted them about a traffic incident that happened when he was off duty. The trooper threatened to arrest Little, claiming wrongly that her vehicle's registration had lapsed.

When the married couple complained to the state Highway Patrol about the trooper's behavior last fall, they were further miffed. In a letter, Commander Fletcher Clay said they weren't entitled to know the outcome of their complaint. State law "prohibits us from divulging information pertaining to personnel actions," Clay wrote.

"I just find that odd," said Little, 33, a teacher at a Christian elementary school in Durham. "They know anything they want to about us, just at the touch of a button. And then when something serious like this happens, we don't have any access to know when it concerns us."

The trooper, Hans Ellefson, 39, remains on the force and could not be reached for comment. His personnel record shows he served a one-week suspension without pay last month. But patrol officials will not discuss the incident at the couple's Morrisville apartment or explain the suspension, saying both are "personnel matters" protected from disclosure under state law.

North Carolina's personnel law shields all but the most basic information for public employees: name, age, date hired, current job and salary, most recent pay increase or decrease, and the date of the most recent change in position. (Ellefson's suspension was public because it was the most recent change, patrol spokesman Lt. Everett Clendenin said.)

Information such as job applications, performance reviews, criminal background checks and misconduct investigations are kept secret. As a result, it's hard for the public to learn about employees who misbehave or who are hired through political connections. The names of job candidates can be withheld, which limits the public scrutiny that might keep government from making a bad hire.

Withholding personnel information can do more than shield a single employee. It can hide patterns of mismanagement, misconduct or political patronage.

"If you can't see personnel records other than name-rank-and-serial-number stuff, then what do you know?" asked John Bussian, general counsel for the N.C. Press Association, which includes The News & Observer.

State and local government officials and public employee associations say that good candidates for state jobs wouldn't apply if their applications became public. They say employee misconduct cases should be kept confidential in fairness to the employees.

"It's just the opinion of our membership that the law is fairly balanced and in the public interest," said Ellis Hankins, executive director of the N.C. League of Municipalities.

In other states with greater access to personnel records, news organizations have exposed problems in state and local governments ranging from dangerous employees to wasteful spending.

In Texas, The Dallas Morning News learned that the state's youth prison system had kept an assistant superintendent at one facility despite warnings that he was having private meetings with young male inmates and was suspended for using his work computer to access pornography. He was later charged with sexually abusing youths he was hired to protect.

In Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch found some teachers had not lost their professional licenses despite lewd behavior with students and soliciting sex from prostitutes. The newspaper created a public database of more than 1,700 teachers who were disciplined.

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