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The operator of Oklahoma City's detox center refused Tuesday to release the center's detainee log, saying publicity would be unfair to those held there.

The Oklahoman asked OKC Metro Alliance Inc. for the log after Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields was taken to the detox center. The private nonprofit corporation operates the center with public funds.

"If our records were made public, a person detained would have nowhere to go to exercise the basic right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against him. No opportunity to require the government to prove its case. No opportunity to clear your name,” the alliance's executive director, Richard Hutton, wrote The Oklahoman.

Oklahoma City police officers sometimes take those suspected of public drunkenness to the center — formally known as the Public Inebriate Alternative — rather than jail. Suspects are not officially arrested and are not charged.

Officers took Fields to the center after a disturbance at a downtown party late Feb. 16. The Democrat later apologized.

The alliance's executive director stressed the center's device for measuring blood-alcohol concentration "is not regularly calibrated and tested such as a breathalyzer used by law enforcement authorities.”

The Oklahoman contended the log is a public record under the Oklahoma Open Records Act since the center gets public funds. An alliance attorney and police disagreed.