The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "criminals" ...
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Sneak & Peek Warrants
A Team 4 investigation exposes people breaking into homes, copying computer files, and covering their tracks on the way out. But these weren't criminals. They were federal law enforcement agents using a special kind of warrant known as sneak & peek.
Tags: Warrants
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Fast and Furious: Arizona Crime Ties
When Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot to death near the Arizona/Mexico border in December 2010, we quickly learned the guns found at the murder scene were linked to a controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives case called Fast and Furious. Phoenix ATF agents testified in front of Congressional leaders about the flawed gun case and the strategy in which they knowingly allowed criminals to obtain deadly assault weapons. The agents admitted to watching straw buyers purchase weapons on behalf of criminals. The agents said they did nothing to stop the purchases or to track the guns in a meaningful way after they were purchased. As a result of the Fast and Furious case, approximately two thousand weapons went missing. They are presumed to be on the streets somewhere in the United States, near the border, or in Mexico. The agents' testimonies sparked a slew of Congressional hearings and a major shuffle within the leadership ranks of the ATF and other areas of the Department of Justice.
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Their Crime, Your Dime
Some of Washington state's costliest public assistance programs harbored a secret over the years. It went unnoticed as taxpayer-funded programs provided food stamps and cash welfare benefits ballooned following the economic crash. Many worthy recipients came forward to get help. So, too, did criminals who found they could cheat Washington's lax fraud prevention programs to the sum of millions of dollars.
Tags: welfare; taxpayers; criminals; lax; economic crash
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Criminalizing Cartoons
The investigation exposes a police chief's desperate attempt to acquire the name of an anonymous cartoonist, mocking his department on the Internet. A person going by the moniker MrFiddlesticks (and other names) was airing internal affairs dirty laundry in the form of parody. To find out who, the city prosecutor, police chief and a local judge teamed up to craft a criminal search warrant. KIRO-TV's investigative unit not only uncovered questionable legal tactics (like prosecutor shopping), but later caught police shredding hundreds of records related the case. First Amendment and FOIA issues are central to this ongoing investigation.
Tags: cartoonist; search warrant; shredding
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Baumgartner
At the start of 2011, the best known and probably most respected judge in Knoxville, Tenn., was Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, founder of Knox County's successful Drug Court and the judge who recently had presided over trials involving the most shocking crime in local memory, the carjacking, torture and murder of a young couple named Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The trials of four suspects led to a death sentence, two life sentences and one very long prison term. But soon after the new year began, Baumgartner took an abrupt leave of absence, ostensible for health reasons.
Tags: judge; Knoxville; trials; criminal court
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Burning Questions: Arson or Accident?
Investigation which found that insurance companies with significant financial interests in the outcome of criminal arson investigations are in fact taking the lead in such probes- with the result that property owners are accused of setting fires that are almost certainly accidents.
Tags: Arson; Insurance Fraud
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Out At First
The Chicago Housing Authority has one of the most punitive criminal activity eviction policies in the nation. The agency moves to evict tenants based on a single arrest -- even when the crime is committed by their children, anyone else living in the unit or even a guest. Tenants are also subject to eviction if they are arrested for a crime that occurred off CHA property, even if it's in another state.
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Army slow to act as crime-lab worker falsified, botched tests
The reporters undertook a year-long inquiry into every facet of the often-opaque military justice system. Through more than two dozen stories, the series closely examined military criminal investigations, lab testing, trials, sentences and appeals.
Tags: military justice system; fabricated results; investigation; falsified tests;
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Honor Tarnished
"This year-long series looks into every facet of the often-opaque military justice system. Through more than two dozen stories, the series closely examined military criminal investigations, lab testing, trials, sentences and appeals."
Tags: military justice system
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Carlos Boles Investigation
This KMOV investigation shows how a man with a violent history was set free to shoot and kill a deputy U.S. Marshal and wound a second deputy. With on-camera interviews with the judge that oversaw the criminal docket, and the St. Louis Police Chief, it is no wonder why the prosecution system is broken
Tags: breaking news; broadcast