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 "phone access" ...
-
Deaf and Tased
A deaf crime victim calls police for help, but instead gets tased, beat-up, and thrown in jail for 60 hours over Easter weekend without access to an interpreter. KIRO 7’s investigative team proves police manipulated their reports to defend their actions. We also uncovered jail guards offered the deaf inmate a broken TTY phone as her only means of communication. We found that device still broken and in service two months later.
-
Your Cell Phone Records Are For Sale
Spurred by a report "buried in the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police newsletter," the Sun-Times looks into the fact that anyone - including criminals - could purchase police officers' cell phone records on the Internet. Reporter Frank Main tested this by purchasing his own cell records for $110 from an online broker. "The records detailed the time and date of each call, and the telephone number called." The broker who sold these records turned out to be a convicted felon. Experts note that the easy access to such records "puts women at risk from stalkers; undercover officers at risk of having confidential informants exposed by criminal targets; and business people at risk of being spied on by corporate rivals."
Tags: Cell phones; wireless phones; cell phone records; stalking; undercover officers; corporate espionage
-
"Politicians' Telecoms Wronged Consumers"; QAI: A legacy of success or slams?; Commerce official's past includes telecom trouble
This special report by the Pioneer Press exposes ties between the Governor and Auditor of Minnesota and New Access Communications, a telephone company accused of fraud. According to the report, Gov. Tim Pawlenty was a director of NewTel Holdings, New Access' parent company, when complaints were filed against New Access. The complaints accused New Access of "overcharging some customers and tricking others into changing their telephone services." Auditor Patricia Awada was the owner of Capitol Verification, which was a company designed to verify that customers really wanted to change their phone service. However, according to the report, Awada's company did not always complete that goal.
Tags: FOIA; Investigating politicians; Fraud; FCC; New Access Communications
-
Inmates Do More Than Phone Home: With the 1st amendment as a shield and monitoring spotty, prisoners make calls to arrange crimes that include murder
The L.A. Times investigates phone calls made by prisoners to commit crimes while behind bars. "Easy access to phone lines allows some inmates to continue their criminal enterprises" even while locked up. The story centers on the conflict between the 1st amendment right of prisoners to use the telephone, as ruled by the federal courts, and California prison officials attempt to deal with the problem of phone calls furthering more crimes. The article also finds many crimes go undetected because of a lack of monitoring by prison officials.
Tags: prison; 1st amendment; first amendment; inmate rights; inmate crimes; phone calls; phone access; drugs; murder
-
Florida House Hides Cellphone Records
For the first time in state history, a government agency - the Florida House - allowed some of its employees to use cellphones for work purposes that were paid for by a private group. In this case, a handful of higher-ups in the House were using phones paid for by the state's Republican party. In turn, they refused to disclose what calls were being made, even though state law requires access to all records related to the operations of the House.
Tags: FOIA; Phone records; Public records
-
Disconnect
By allowing new competitors into the local phone market, the 1996 telecom act helped create the new telecom economy. But it contained a fatal flaw that allowed the Bells to control new entrants' access to customers, even as these two compete for the same customers. The result is that the Bells are dominating the market and able to drive new telecom companies out of business.
Tags: telecom industry; Rhythms NetConnections; Telecommunications Act of 1996; DSL; Internet; broadband; Michael Powell; FCC; deregulation
-
You're in the Hole: A Crackdown on Dissident Prisoners
A Progressive investigation reveals that "in the hours following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, dissident prisoners were singled out from the general population and take to secure housing units." Some of the isolated inmates were denied access to counsel; their lawyers were denied phone conversations and personal visits with their clients. Cusac finds that most of the segregated prisoners happened to be peace-activists or left-wing. Without any public comment, six weeks after Sept. 11 the Justice Department implemented an interim rule that justified the infringement on the detainees' human rights, and explained the new policy with intelligence and law enforcement concerns.
Tags: Amnesty International; human rights; civil rights; terrorism; John Ashcroft; attorneys; lawyers; military
-
The Ticketmaster
The story detailed how thousands of dollars worth of free sports and concert tickets given to Atlanta's elected officials landed on the black market. Articles described how a city councilwoman helped a close friend and business partner get hundreds of tickets which he later sold and traded for profit. He also sold access to luxury stadium boxes controlled by the government authority overseeing the Atlanta Braves stadium. The friend provided the councilwoman, Sheila Martin Brown, with trips to casinos, hundreds of dollars worth of cellular phone use passed on from a ticket client, and $3,500 provided by another ticket client to help pay for a trip to Africa. The articles also highlighted a lack of controls on the flow of free tickets to government officials (the mayor got $24,000 worth of tickets annually; the chairman of the Fulton County Commission $12,100).
Tags: None