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 "officer misconduct" ...
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War Zone: The Destruction of an All-American City
The hour-long documentary War Zone: The Destruction of an All-American City takes an unprecedented look at the impact of corruption on the East St. Louis, Illinois area, one of the poorest and most violent communities in America. The program was broadcast twice during prime time; Tuesday night at 8 pm on August 28, and the following Saturday night at 7 pm. This project was the result of an ongoing decade-long probe of government waste, corruption, police misconduct, and violence in East St. Louis and the surrounding villages by investigative reporter Craig Cheatham. Our documentary begins with a detailed look at police misconduct and corruption, how it has contributed to the breakdown of public safety in the East St. Louis area, and why local politicians tolerated such outrageous behavior by their officers. The second part of our documentary focuses on the impact of derelict and vacant housing, the slumlords who own the property and the people who live in some of the worst housing in the metro area. Our investigation also uncovered new connections between politicians and legendary slumlord Ed Sieron, who was business partners with a longtime mayor. In addition, KMOV revealed that of the 500 mostly rundown properties that Sieron owns in East St. Louis, only 13 were cited for code violations. That lack of accountability for the notorious slumlord, empowered him and made the people living in his homes feel powerless. War Zone also exposes the way East St. Louis communities have sold their economy to vice-driven businesses like strip clubs, liquor stores, a casino, and convenience marts that had a long history of selling illegal synthetic drugs. Our investigation found that nearly all of these businesses failed to employ a significant number of East St. Louis residents, even though they received millions of dollars in tax incentives that are paid by East St. Louis residents. At the same time East St. Louis is handing out tax breaks to wealthy out-of-town businessmen, it repeatedly refused to provide the same tax incentives for local residents who wanted to create family friendly businesses that would employ people living in the East St. Louis area.
Tags: government corruption; police misconduct; violence; politicians; community; local business
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Both Sides of the Law
At least 93 Milwaukee police officers have been disciplined for violating laws and ordinances they were sworn to uphold. The offenses range from sexual assault and domestic violence to drunken driving and shoplifting. Officers who run afoul of the law often aren't fired or prosecuted, and they are allowed to continue enforcing laws the very laws they have broken.
Tags: police misconduct; police department; discipline; law enforcment
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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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Both Sides of the Law
This series looks into the Milwaukee police department's policies for officers who break the law. They found at least 93 officers that have been disciplined for violating the laws and ordinances they were sworn to uphold.
Tags: police misconduct
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The NYPD Tapes
The series gives an unprecedented look inside the NYPD through the secret recordings documenting police misconduct made by Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft. Evidence of civil rights violations, a severe staffing shortage, and downgrading of rape complaints are found within the 117 roll call recordings.
Tags: police misconduct; NYPD; undercover; crime; recordings
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Abuse of Power
This series is an investigation into former CSUPD Chief Dexter Yarbrough. Before the investigation began, he had been placed on paid administrative leave and this raised suspicion from J. David McSwane. After much research and interviewing, David revealed a number of cases of misconduct by Yarbrough. These cases of misconduct included sexual harassment and other illegal behaviors. After everything was revealed, Yarbrough resigned and now hiring of university officials and police personnel is highly assessed.
Tags: Colorado State University (CSU); law enforcement; education; college; universities; police officer; Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity(OEOD)
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Professional Victim
This journalistic investigation is about using an agent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Prosecutor General's Office as a "victim." The office uses the "victim" in order to forge various criminal cases. There had always been rumors that the police used such agents, but the public in the country of Georgia did not have any real information about these agents. The faked victim in this case was Vagarshak (Gaikovich) Loris-Ruso. He has been used by the General Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to "disclose" criminal cases of bribery. From July 2004 to 2007, he took part in six criminal cases. The journalists became interested in his past and found him in four other criminal cases. The investigation showed that he had been cooperating with the police and helped them to arrest undesirable people. The investigation consisted of two parts. The first part of the story was about Alexhandre Mkheidze, and his detention, trial and verdict. In this case, Vagarshak admitted to cooperating with the police and receiving money for it. The second part of the investigation is about eight other criminal cases and shows the accusation, official grounds and certain objections for each case.
Tags: Georgia; international journalism; bribery; police departments; misconduct
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Court Officer Investigation
A four month Inside Edition hidden camera investigation exposed a culture among New York State Court Officers where drinking on the job was a regular occurrence and appeared to be acceptable conduct as it went unchecked for many years.
Tags: drinking on the job; Court officers; officer misconduct; court case; public intoxication; Court Administration;
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Police Complaints Rising
Brutality complaints were on the rise at three area law enforcement departments; they had increased by 25 percent in the last five years. Complaints about other officer misconduct, such as rudeness or harassment, also were on the rise. Few citizen complaints were validated by the departments, which investigated the complaints themselves. The majority of complaints were deemed unsubstantiated and in many cases they were classified as false, which subjected the complainant to possible criminal prosecution.
Tags: civil liberties; law enforcement; police brutality; search and seizure; excessive force; civil rights activists
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The Federal Contractor Misconduct Database
The Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD) is a Web-based resource that tracks the civil, criminal, and administrative misconduct of the federal government's largest suppliers of goods and services. POGO created the FCMD to ensure that the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars the federal government awards every year in contracts (over $530 billion in fiscal year 2008) go to companies with solid records of responsibility, integrity and performance. POGO developed the FCMD because government contracting officers are required by law to award contracts to responsible vendors only but lack a centralized repository of information on vendors' misconduct histories. To make decisions that are in the best interest of the public and prevent fraud, wasted and abuse, the government must have as much information as possible reflecting the past performance and responsibility of prospective vendors. The FCMD provides this information free to the public in a concise and user-friendly format. The FCMD spotlights each of the top 100 federal contractors. It complies each contractor's instances of misconduct -- actual and alleged -- dating back to 1995. In addition to misconduct instances, the FCMD includes primary source documents and links to the contractors' Web sites, annual reports, SEC filings, and lobbying and campaign finance information. Search and sort features allow users to search the data for key words, or to organize the data in interesting ways. The FCMD is an evolving resource. POGO continually adds and updates instances and contractor information. POGO also periodically updates the contractor list to reflect the most current fiscal year ranking. Each year, the roster of contractors will change, but POGO will keep all old rankings on a special archive page so that eventually the FCMD will include hundreds of contractors.
Tags: government contracts; computer-assisted reporting; database work; government oversight; misconduct