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 "safeguards" ...
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Broken Shield
Decades ago, California created a special police force to patrol exclusively at its five state developmental centers – taxpayer-funded institutions where patients with severe autism and cerebral palsy have been beaten, tortured and raped by staff members. But California Watch found that this state force, the Office of Protective Services, does an abysmal job bringing perpetrators to justice. Reporter Ryan Gabrielson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, exposed the depths of the abuse inside these developmental centers while showing how sworn officers and detectives wait too long to start investigations, fail to collect evidence and ignore key witnesses – leading to an alarming inability to solve crimes inflicted upon some of society’s most vulnerable citizens. Dozens of women were sexually assaulted inside state centers, but police investigators didn’t order “rape kits” to collect evidence, a standard law enforcement tool. Police waited so long to investigate one sexual assault that the staff janitor accused of rape fled the country, leaving behind a pregnant patient incapable of caring for a child. The police force’s inaction also allowed abusive caregivers to continue molesting patients – even after the department had evidence that could have stopped future assaults. Many of the victims chronicled by California Watch are so disabled they cannot utter a word. Gabrielson gave them a resounding voice. Our Broken Shield series prompted far-reaching change, including a criminal investigation, staff retraining and new laws – all intended to bring greater safeguards and accountability.
Tags: California; police; autism; cerebral palsy; abuse; children
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Hacker Hunters
The authors investigated a battle of wits between the U.S. secret service and a cyber-crime gang known as the ShadowCrew. The story covers a rare victory by law enforcement to shut down a web-based crime outfit. It gave a face to the ShadowCrew, a network of over 4,000 people run by a part time college student and gave a reminder to internet users to be wary of doing business on the Web.
Tags: Internet; cyber-crime; web-based crime outfit; ShadowCrew; the U.S. Secret Service; e-business; Internet security
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Overcoming Injustice: Safeguarding the right to vote
The two-day series looked at black participation at the polls 40 years after the Voting Rights Act safeguarded their right to vote. In a county-by-county analysis of black voter turnout in the 2004 election, it found that blacks still participate at a much lower level than the voting population in general. Officials and advocates were divided on whether this difference in black participation reflects a squandering of the legacy their parents and grandparents died to create, or whether obstacles to voting remain for black voters.
Tags: voting; census; Florida; FOIA; voting age; race; black voters; voter turnout
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The Lunatics Have Taken over the Asylum
This investigative story of Alameda County's acute psychiatric hospital, John George, started when a doctor was beaten and strangled to death by a mentally ill patient. It was revealed that assaults by patients were common in the facility and hospital staff complained for years about 'inadequate safeguards' to protect them from potentially violent patients. This investigation also revealed that a lot of facilities like John George put 'severe restrictions' on how to handle violent patients, which can put many hospital staff in danger.
Tags: psychiatric hospital; mentally ill; OSHA; Occupational Safety and Health; patients; work safety
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Bush versus the environment
This book "shows how the White House is quietly undermining the entire system of environmental safeguards that has developed over the past thirty years." The investigation shows how the administration encourages lawsuits against the federal government that challenge environmental laws, ignores scientific evidence that doesn't support its goals, and uses "fuzzy math" to overestimate costs and underestimate the benefits of environmental regulations.
Tags: BOOK; Bush; environment; EPA; Environmental Protection Agency; business; industry; environmental law
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Unsafe Saviors
This story looks at how there are no safeguards against accidents caused by ambulances. As this reporter investigates, the ambulances are not put through severe tests before they are put on the road, nor are the drivers given enough training. In fact, the investigation found that people have a higher risk of being harmed in a an ambulance crash than in other vehicle accidents.
Tags: ambulances; ambulance accidents; ambulance crashes; risk of accidents in ambulances; paramedics; hospitals; vehicle accidents
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Home Front: Safeguards lacking for emergency equipment
A story on the safety equipment that is sold to police, firefighters, and other emergency responders; much of which is neither safety-tested nor certified by government or independent laboratories. Surprisingly, much of the equipment is bought at trade fairs, where buyers buy the stuff without knowing much more than the salespeople's representations of it.
Tags: Safety; homeland defense; September 11
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Military Quacks
Carollo and Nesmith tell the stories of victims of medical accidents and misjudgments involving doctors employed by the U.S. military. "That means the patients were treated in an environment not governed by some of the most significant safeguards that help protect civilians from bad medicine." Under Defense Department rules, such incidents involving military doctors, are not even reported to the National Practitioners Data Bank.
Tags: malpractice claims; doctors; military hospitals; lobbying; public health; legislature
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AfterMeth
A six-day series on how meth labs affect a community, particularly the property owners and extended families of meth users and meth cooks. The 14-month investigation found that drug clean-up is hit-and-miss, there are few safeguards to protect potential secondary victims, no public money is available to help sanitize meth-tainted property, and there is no scientific-based standard for answering the question of how much meth is hazardous.
Tags: meth; meth labs; meth users; drugs; meth-tainted properties; meth-contamination
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The Trouble with Houses
New homes in the Minneapolis area are deteriorating at an alarming rate. Part of the problem arises because tighter, better insulated houses trap moisture that can rot out walls and studs. The other part is a home building industry that has few safeguards against faulty work.
Tags: housing; fuel conservation; mold; indoor pollution; mildew