That sums up my call to the Whiteville police department. My policy has always been honesty. I'm honest to a flaw - even my mom says I'm too blunt. But I appreciate honesty, and thus I always try to give it in return. Also, I can be really feisty when necessary, and I often am even when it's not necessary. However, my approach today was to be as nice as possible. When dealing with small-town people (and honestly people in general), that's the way to go. I grew up in a small town. I know how to deal with the mindless chatter that's necessary; I know how to pull out my accent (I know it sounds bad now, but you should hear me after I've been home for a week) and sound slightly less intelligent. And I know these things work because it makes me just another person, less intimidating and more friendly. All of that is rambling. The point is that I got all of my information within a six minute phone conversation. And I got it by being friendly and telling the lady everything she asked about and some things she didn't.
The people at the Whiteville police department know my name. They know I'm a student at UNC-Chapel Hill and that I will be visiting to collect records for a class project. They know we're working with "The News Reporter," and they know we're trying to get the information online. And I don't see any problems with them knowing that. I know people get defensive sometimes, but I think reporters are often offensive. We go in wanting everyone to throw their records at us. But we expect that they won't, so we go in prepared for a fight. We turn on the fire. We tell unnecessary lies. Any respect people had for us when we walked in soon disappears. And I'm just not O.K. with that. But I'm still rambling ...
The lady at the front desk (no, I didn't get her name) told me they do not have online versions of the records, and they do not have word documents. They cannot e-mail me anything, and they cannot fax me anything unless I'm looking for something specific. I'm going to try to get around that for my sample data - I don't want to drive all the way to Whiteville over fall break, especially because my house is in the exact opposite direction. I was told, however, that if I walk in and ask for reports, they can give me the reports from as recently as yesterday. The reports go back to the early 1980s, but those are only specific reports. (I didn't find out more information than that.) The front desk lady said that anyone at the front desk can get me these reports, but she suggested that I talk to the chief about what I'm doing if I plan on being in there more than once. So, I'm going to hold the chief accountable for getting me these reports - in fact, he will probably never hand me a record, but if something doesn't work out, he's getting blamed. His name and contact information can be found in my previous blog.
I did get put on hold once, and when the lady came back, she asked for my name. That's fine. She sounded like she was taking it so that when I came in they could be super-helpful for me, but maybe she was taking it to warn everyone. Maybe it was a bit of both. I don't actually care. What's the big deal about her having my name? I'm going to get the records either way.
As for the statements of economic interest in Raleigh, I haven't actually gotten around to those yet. I plan to start almost immediately, and I'm going to update this blog when I get that information. I'm not even 100 percent sure about what we're supposed to find, so hopeful my reporter's instinct will lead me. Or something.
I've returned from a search that took a lot longer than originally intended. After leaving last time, I detoured through the weekend and have just now resurfaced. So I have found ... nothing. Well, almost nothing. I found that the statements are filed with the Ethics Commission, and all of their contact information is here. However, I am not convinced that the records are not online. I'm just convinced that I don't know how to search for them. I e-mailed Professor Thornburg for help, and I'm waiting to hear back. If worse comes to worse, I'm pretty sure I can call the Ethics Commission and be pointed in the right direction. But since it's Sunday evening, that's not going to work for now. I'll update if/when I get updates.
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