Be active with records requests
By Doug Haddix, IRE training director
Getting public records often takes far more effort than filing a written request and simply waiting for the juicy documents to arrive. “It’s reporting, not requesting,” says Shawn McIntosh, public editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The best reporters realize that a written public-records request usually is just one step to get the information they need, she told participants in an IRE Better Watchdog Workshop hosted by CNN in Atlanta. In most cases, reporters need to keep working sources, finding ways around obstacles and navigating through bureaucracies. She offered a variety of practical tips ...
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Only a local news organization can hold institutions and individuals in a community accountable, so journalists need to be equipped for the job, says Rob Dean, managing editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican.
That’s why the newspaper sponsored custom IRE training for its staff in early February.
"In the last three days, I think we’ve gotten a set of skills that allows us not to be intimidated by the enormity of the project or the pressure of time," Dean said. "Using the tools of the information age, data that’s available, we can get deeply into a ... 
Thompson suggests that the source set up an e-mail account with an alias on AOL, Google or another national provider. To help protect potential whistleblowers, she reminds them not to communicate with her from a work computer ...