I guess all the people who insist we’re in the pocket of the Ridley Police Department will have to find something else to complain about today.

Now who would that be plastered all over the front page of the newspaper? Well, that would be none other than former Ridley Township Officer Brian Decker.

This all started back in November, when an incident involving Decker and a female clerk at the Wawa across the street from the police station first came to light.

My legions of critics insisted that we were downplaying the story, in part because we were in cahoots with Ridley police.

Decker eventually was charged with assault. He checked into rehab and was formally arraigned on the charges about a week later. But his preliminary hearing had been continued several times. I get the feeling from some readers that we’re to blame for that, too.

This new, cozy relationship might come as news to Capt. Charles Howley, the top cop in the township. I like the guy, but we’ve had more than our share of disagreements.

Specifically, our critics noted that we had not run a photo of Decker, and it was not featured on the front page of the paper, as is the case with so many other criminal suspects.

They were right about that. But not for the reason they believed. They think we didn’t use a photo on purpose, that we were trying to protect Decker, and the Ridley police.

Not exactly.

The truth is we didn’t have his photo. There was a high school yearbook shot floating around the Internet, but I didn’t really want to use that one.

That all changed yesterday. We were there as Decker arrived at district court in Springfield for his preliminary hearing.

We took his photo. And we did a video of him arriving, as well as his attorney from after the hearing.

Decker was held for trial.

You can read all the other details here.

Then you can post a comment about how we’re still trying to go easy on Ridley police.

Just don’t look at the front page of the newspaper if that’s the case.