What do you do when you have a person that you would like to create a biographical record but for what ever reason they do not want or cannot participate?
This is an example from the Minnesota Historical Society on the first woman police officer, Carolen Bailey.
Considerations
First of all, you be respectful of individual rights of privacy. If you subject is a family member or someone close to you and really does not want their photo, voice or likeness publicly presented then you should probably not proceed.
With public and historical figures you have a bit a leeway but again, the respect thing can help keep you out of trouble.
I guess you will have to decide if this is a personal, public, journalistic or historical creation. Each one of those types of oral histories have to be approached differently.
Carolen Bailey was absolutely no prime example of what it takes to "protect and serve". I was a rape and damn near a murder victim in Feb of 1971 and she treated me as if I were the perpetrator rather than the victim of that crime. I nearly bled out-had to be transfused with 9 pts. of blood and all I can truly recall of her and the men she worked with is that they were convinced that my then boyfriend (simply because he was a black man and I was a white girl) had to be the person who committed this evil act. I have suffered my entire life with depression, PTSD, anxiety, and a lack of faith in people. I can't possibly imagine why!!! This person was no shining example of what a police officer/detective SHOULD be and everything of hers on display in the MN Historical Society ought to be ripped out of there and burned!
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