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.

When the facts slip out

In North Carolina, examples abound where the personnel law has kept the public in the dark about misconduct and patronage. Often, it takes a court case, a tip from a source, or in the case of McCracken and Little, a complaint from the public before information becomes known.

The Highway Patrol has repeatedly cited the personnel law in withholding information on trooper misconduct. An administrative court decision in September exposed several cases over the past decade in which troopers were engaged in sexual activity on duty or in a patrol car. Some of those officers, including one who made death threats against his wife, were allowed to remain on the force.

Administrative court documents, other court records and complaints from the public helped The N&O identify more than 20 cases in which troopers resigned or were disciplined or fired after allegations that they were involved in affairs on or off duty. The patrol is now undergoing an outside review of its personnel policies and practices.

The personnel law gives state agency heads the option to release private information if the agency's integrity is in question. But state officials rarely use that exception -- even when there's evidence that someone has broken the law.

In October, N.C. Crime Control Secretary Bryan Beatty invoked that provision to release some details of 24 trooper misconduct investigations dating to 1990. One of those cases, from 1999, was about a trooper who assaulted an ex-girlfriend by "grabbing, choking and striking her." On another occasion, that trooper placed another female in a "bent wrist arm lock to the point it hurt and made a rhetorical statement about her engaging in a 'three-some.' "

The trooper received a five-day suspension without pay. Beatty declined to identify him or any others from the investigations.

"As head of the department, I also have to maintain morale within the department," Beatty said, "and if I'm out publicly exposing names and embarrassing them, I think they would question why I would want to do that."

The angry trooper

In the case of Trooper Ellefson, McCracken and Little say the trooper told them that night that they had nearly hit him while he was off duty two days earlier, riding his motorcycle on Creedmoor Road near Falls Lake. The couple say that Ellefson, another motorcyclist and the driver of a blue Jeep Grand Cherokee had harassed them on the highway.

McCracken, 28, a recent N.C. State University graduate, was behind the wheel, rounding a curve when he said he saw the Jeep stopped in the highway. He swerved around it and came upon the motorcycle riders. Both flipped their middle fingers at him, he said.

At that point, the couple was between the Jeep and the motorcycles. McCracken said he tried to pass the motorcycles, only to see them speed up and nearly trap him in the passing lane, exposing him to oncoming traffic.

The couple approached the intersection to Interstate 540. The Jeep began swerving behind them, its horn blowing.

They turned onto the I-540 ramp, only to see the Jeep speed up, Little said in a statement to the patrol. The Jeep came within a few feet behind them; the horn blared again.

The couple passed the exit to their home, fearing they would be followed. When the Jeep and motorcycles got off at the Aviation Parkway exit, the couple took another route home.

After Ellefson's early morning visit, the couple said, they spent the rest of the night awake. Little was afraid to leave the apartment alone, fearing that Ellefson was waiting for her. When she saw a patrol cruiser parked near her school one day, she closed the blinds and locked the door to her classroom.

Patrol spokesman Clendenin said that troopers in off-duty traffic disputes should not confront motorists. They are to contact on-duty law enforcement to investigate.

Division of Motor Vehicles records show that Ellefson is not licensed to drive a motorcycle.

Calls for reform

Bussian, the press association counsel, said he plans to suggest legislation to state lawmakers to make public personnel information such as job applications, misconduct investigations and performance reviews.

Rep. Linda Coleman, a Knightdale Democrat and chairwoman of the House State Personnel Committee, agrees that employee misbehavior should not be kept secret. She's not in favor of making job applications public, but she said the personnel law needs a serious look.

"It is a really terribly old system that we are operating under, and we do need to take a look at it," said Coleman, a retired personnel manager for three state agencies. "I don't think that you are going to see a blanket opening-up of personnel information, but there may be some way that we can work on it and not have it so you can hide behind that phrase 'It's a personnel matter.' "