Durham's new police chief is quite the diva it seems!

Isn't Lopez the fellow that promised to be more communicative with the citizens and the press?

This whole exchange isn't promising, to say the least. And why should the reporter get chewed out by the chief? Seems to me the problem was certainly not with her.

From Barry Saunders at the N & O:

After a home invasion that resulted in a police shooting and a death downtown Saturday evening, an N&O reporter spent Sunday vainly trying to reach several department representatives to find out details.

She called the chief at home as a last resort. Remember now, this was no minor crime, no jaywalking or kids getting a five-fingered discount on a pack of Bubblicious at Wal-Mart. It was a burglary, a police shooting and a death. Downtown.

One would think the chief would be eager to let citizens know what happened and that his cops responded heroically.

One would be wrong.

How wrong? Here's the transcript of our reporter's minute-long conversation with the chief:

N&O: Hi, may I please speak to Chief Lopez?

Lopez: This is he.

N&O: This is Samiha Khanna, reporter for The News & Observer. I'm writing about two incidents that occurred yesterday.

Lopez: Do you realize it's quarter to 8 o'clock on a Sunday night?

N&O: Yes, sir, but I've been trying to reach your investigators and [department spokeswoman Kammie Michael] all day --

Lopez: Kammie gets a day off, too.

N&O: I understand that, but I was hoping you could confirm that two people have been arrested in connection with the home invasion car crash.

Lopez: No, I can't.

N&O: OK, so two people haven't been arrested?

Lopez: No, I can't confirm that because I'm at home and I haven't been in to work. I'm sure the officers are doing whatever they need to do. Today is my day off.

N&O: OK.

Lopez: I'm at home, trying to relax. Calling me at home at 8 o'clock on a Sunday night is not reasonable.

N&O: It's not reasonable?

Lopez: No, it's not.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

Since it's unreasonable to expect Chief J Lo to talk to the media -- and thus Durham citizens -- if crimes occur when he's at home, I must direct this plea toward criminals: Could y'all please be considerate and do your dirty deeds between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. so we won't have to bug the chief at his crib?

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/854702.html

How embarrassing for him and well, disturbing for us, to hear of this as we are just getting to know our new chief of police.