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 "local law enforcement" ...
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Off Track: Clandestine Racing in California
This story delved into an unknown world of illegal and clandestine horse racing happening on private tracks throughout the state of California. The straight-track races occur on properties throughout the state. KCRA uncovered a world where drug deals, prostitution, illegal gambling and animal cruelty are the norm. KCRA got the point of view of investigators and a veterinary scientist who found that horses were being dosed with mixtures of cocaine and methamphetamine. Added to this was the fact that few local law enforcement know it's happening and state investigators don't have the resources to stop the racing from happening.
Tags: Horse racing; drug deals; prostituion; gambling; animal abuse; veterinary science; cocaine; methamphetamine
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GPS Surveillance
This story examines how law enforcement agents- FBI, DEA, local police, and border patrol agents- have been using GPS devices for years with little to no oversight.
Tags: GPS surveillance; FBI; DEA; local police; border patrol
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Spy Drones Aiding Police
Government surveillance drones have been used, with no public notice, to assist local police departments inside the U.S. find suspects and conduct. A Los Angeles Times/ Tribune Co. Washington Bureau investigation uncovered for the first time over two dozen uses of the Department of Homeland Security drones to help local law enforcement in North Dakota, where two of the department's nine Predator B aircraft are based.
Tags: Government Surveillance; Department of Homeland Security; North Dakota; Drones; Security
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The Arming Question
Princeton Public Safety officers are sworn police officers who have the same training and enforce the same laws as local police officers, and they are responsible for responding to the same incidents -- including armed incidents -- as local officers. Yet University Public Safety officers are forbidden from carrying guns. Despite the Virginia Tech shootings and three gun scares on Princeton's campus in recent years, the University has been steadfast in its opposition to arming its officers. But our investigation casts doubt on the University's conclusion that keeping officers unarmed will not affect the response to a shooter on campus and that arming would negatively impact student-officer relationships.
Tags: campus safety; Princeton University; guns; police officers
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America's War Within
America's War Within, led by the Center for Investigative Reporting, deeply examined the first 10 years of the war on terror. There were several findings stemming from work conducted throughout the year. First, a little-known but costly intelligence arm of the Department of Homeland Security did not meaningfully contribute to the war on terror and instead generated reams of "intelligence spam." Second, a private counterterrorism team at the Mall of America ensnared innocent shoppers by reporting them to authorities for "suspicious activity," part of a national initiative promoted by the federal government to college and analyze threat intelligence, much of which has dubious value. Third, local police around the country have stockpiled combat-style equipment with the help of some $34 billion in federal homeland security grants contributing to a "militarization" of law enforcement, even though violent crime is dropping and terrorist attacks are rare.
Tags: terrorism; violence; grants; Department of Homeland Security
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Unfit For Duty
A nine-part series on how state and local officials handle police misconduct in the state of Florida. The newspaper analyzed more than 22,000 misconduct cases, uncovering that severely troubled officers are frequently still in duty.
Tags: law; enforcement; misconduct; police; Florida
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Deadly Force: When Las Vegas Police Shoot, and Kill
In the wake of two controversial officer-involved deaths in the summer of 2010, the Las Vegas Review-Journal asked a simple question: Are Las Vegas police too quick to shoot? What reporters Lawrence Mower, Brian Haynes and Alan Maimon found in a groundbreaking analysis of all police shootings in Clark County since 1990 stunned even veteran police administrators: Local cops had shot at people 378 times, resulting in 142 deaths. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department alone was involved in 311 incidents resulting in 116 deaths. By any measure, Nevada's largest law enforcement agency uses deadly force more often than counterparts in the region and in other major cities surveyed.
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How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam
Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, regularly declares that the police must be our "eyes and ears" in the effort the secure the United States against terrorism. Over the last ten years, this conviction has fed billions of federal and state dollars to a flourishing market in counterterrorism courses for state and local law enforcement. No one, however, has been paying attention to what cops are actually taught.
Tags: police; Department of Homeland Security; terrorism; counterterrorism
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"Urban League Gets Mixed Grades On Crenshaw Area Overhaul"
This series attempts to provide a "midway progress report" for a major, $25 million effort by the Los Angeles Urban League to "address academic problems at Crenshaw High School," and several other "social ills" that bother the neighborhood that surrounds the campus. Reporters interviewed members of the community, school and local law enforcement in an effort to report on the progress of the program. They found the Urban League's Neighborhoods@Work program "met some goals and fell short of others."
Tags: Los Angeles Urban League; Crenshaw High; LAPD; L.A. Unified School District; L.A. City Attorney's Office; California Public Records Act; records request
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ICE quietly relaxes ban on using stun gun on jailed detainees
MPR "brought to light the troubling story of an immigrant detainee shot in the testicle with a Taser gun while in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a Minnesota jail. They further revealed ICE retroactively changed its ban on jails using stung guns against ICE detainees due to pressure from local law enforcement. ICE continued to send hundreds of detainees to jails rated "deficient" and quietly reversed the failing grades."
Tags: Immigration and Customs Enforcement; ICE; immigrants; detainees; stun gun; Taser; Minnesota Department of Corrections