The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets 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. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "Department of Justice" ...
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Tipsheets on investigations of race and policing
The authors discuss a recent Philadelphia Inquirer investigation into racial profiling in suburban police departments. They then offer suggestions for reporters pursuing similar stories. The suggestions include where to find data and how to analyze it.
Tags: data; racial profiling; police; justice statistics; local government
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Arizona Department of Corrections
A brief outline of what the Arizona Department of Corrections does and what goals they have.
Tags: prison; criminal justice; state; Arizona; criminal justice track
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Policing the Police
Sward explains how she and other colleagues at the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the unnecessary force used by some members of the San Francisco Police Department. They ultimately exposed that one of the officers, the son of an assistant chief of police, was still on probation and had amassed a long string of incidents in which he used force on suspects, when he was accused of getting into a brawl with two civilians over a bag of steak fajitas. She explains what records they obtained, how their database was built and what they would do differently next time.
Tags: law enforcement; crime; police officers; FOI; public records; criminal justice system
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Prisons, Parole, and Sentencing
Crowder provides tips on how to look at incarceration rates, recidivism, aftercare, drug testing, and sentencing laws. She provides specific questions to ask when looking at these topics. The tipsheet has a list of resources for state-by-state data and comparisons.
Tags: incarceration rate; prison; parole violation; parole officer; drug test; halfway houses; aftercare; forensics experts; drug treatment centers; habitual offender laws; robbers; murder; Sentencing Commission; Criminal Justice Institute; U.S. Department of Justice
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Hidden Cameras and Wireless Transmitters
This tipsheet has a list of benefits and shortfalls of using hidden cameras. It also provides warnings and laws regarding hidden camera use. Chris Halsne also gives some suggestions for hidden cameras.
Tags: camera; equipment; federal law; audio; video; US code; Justice Department; Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
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International Terrorism Convictions
This tipsheet contains a spreadsheet of international terrorism convictions in the US during 2003. The tipsheet also contains two articles from the Philadelphia Inquirer, one about 65 New Jersey terrorism cases and one concerning the Department of Justice's inflation of terrorism convictions, along with a docket from a district court case in Massachusetts.
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Sources for Evaluating Police Departments
This tipsheet offers a list of possible sources that can be useful when investigating police departments.
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Using the FOIA to get the documents
The Freedom of Information Act is an important tool to journalists, even with more restrictions to information occurring all the time. IRE Board member James Grimaldi gives a step by step guide through the FOIA filing process. Included in this tipsheet are a series of links to help reporters in their FOIA requests.
Tags: FOIA; department of justice; documents; records; ACLU; SPJ; department of state; defense department; department of interior; department of commerce; department of agriculture; NASA; Enron
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Insider's Guide to Washington: Department of Justice
The Department of Justice has become "one of the fastest growing departments in the federal government, with 107,000 employees and a budget that more than doubled in the past decade." Justice includes nearly every federal law enforcement agency, and "every major issue" passes through it. This tipsheet provides a rundown on how the department is structured, who the players are, and the names and numbers of contacts within Justice and the FBI. A list of databases and useful websites is provided, as well as contact information for relevant Congressional committees and outside groups.
Tags: justice; FBI; DOJ; ATF; DEA; ashcroft; prosecutor; attorney; civil; criminal; terrorism; FOIA; executive branch
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Federal Staffing
David Burnham of Syracuse University provides printouts of TRAC database search results of federal employee records at the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The first search results set contains three columns: Year, # of Federal Employee Records and Employees per Million Pop. The second set of search results, specific to the occupation of Border Patrol Agent and year 2000, contains these columns: State, # of Federal Employees and Employees per Million Pop. The third set of search results contains the same information for the Immigration Inspection occupation and the fourth set of search results is for the Criminal Investigating Occupation. The final page of this tipsheet is a list of those holding the Criminal Investigating occupation in the year 2000 for the state of Arkansas, including names, pay plan and salary. TRAC is a subscription-based service.
Tags: security; immigrants; INS; federal agencies