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 "crime rate" ...
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Bronx Prosecutors Drop Staggering Loads of Cases
A nine-month investigation by WNYC’s Ailsa Chang revealed that people accused of crimes in the Bronx have a greater chance of walking away without charges than anywhere else in New York City. Chang’s two-part series shows that the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office declines to prosecute thousands more cases than do the four other District Attorney offices. And the main reason is a troubling internal policy that no other prosecutors’ office in the city follows: In the Bronx, a case is dropped if a victim doesn’t cooperate within the first 24 hours after an arrest. Bronx prosecutors declined almost one quarter of all their cases in 2011. That’s nearly four times the average rate Manhattan and Brooklyn prosecutors declined cases.
Tags: Crimes; charges; prosecutors; declined cases; victim cooperation
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"Fresno Cops Involved in Repeat Shootings Still on Duty"
This investigative report by Ali Winston found that "27 Fresno police officers were involved in repeat shootings of civilians" from 2003 to 2009. Winston compared the data to the Oakland Police Department, a city that has a higher crime rate, during the same period of time and found that "only five officers were involved in repeat shootings." The Fresno Police Department's chief of internal affairs was "unaware of the number of officers involved in repeat shootings until contacted by Winston."
Tags: Fresno Police Department; Oakland Police Department; Internal Affairs; California; Anaheim Police; LAPD; Robert Nevarez; Central Valley
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Failure of Justice
The failed investigation of a police imposter who sexually assaulted at least 15 Apache teenagers serves as a window into the breakdown of law enforcement in Indian country. Native Americans suffer from disproportionate crime rates - especially sexual assaults - largely because of a dysfunctional criminal justice system. In this case, two men were falsely arrested and jailed; the real criminal got away and victims saw no justice. The government's own records, obtained through a federal lawsuit, demonstrate that the problem is systemic - a result of overlapping jurisdictions, mismanagement, lack of funding inadequate training and multiple other flaws.
Tags: Law Enforcement; Native American; Justice; Jurisdiction; Sexual Assault; Rape; Police; Imposter; Apache; Whiteriver; Indian Reservation
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"FBI Data, Scholars: As Illegal Immigration Rose, Crime Rate Fell"
According to "widely trusted" crime reporting data, reports that crime is rising along the southern border of the U.S. in incorrect. Reporter Cristina Rayas wanted to find out if there was a correlation between crime and immigration. She found that the crime rate is actually down in the U.S. and that immigrants might actually be making "communities safer."
Tags: Unified Crime Reports; Department of Homeland Security; Pinal County Sheriff's Department; Mexico; Arizona; Council on Foreign Relations; Pew Hispanic Center; Border Patrol
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Dallas Crime Stats
“Dallas had the highest reported crime rate among cities with more than 1 million people”. Many people were worried with distinction, so the police came up with a better system to record and report these statistics. Now that Dallas isn’t known to have the highest reported crime rate, it has come to attention that the rates being presented to the public are creating “an artificial image of crime in Dallas”.
Tags: law enforcement; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Police Department; Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines; officers; misclassified cases; Police Chief David Kunkle
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True Crime
This story examines the "real impact of crime in Memphis-the city often rated as the Most Violent and most crime-ridden in America in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports". This series was built off of a never before created database, which held every criminal arrest made in Memphis in the past 10 years. It consisted of "about 1 million records from the past decade".
Tags: law enforcement; criminal; police department; statistics; records; victims; crime-ridden; violence; neighborhoods
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"Justice: Delayed, dismissed, denied"
This series “documented a Philadelphia court system deep in crisis.” The court system has the “nation’s lowest conviction rates, highest fugitives rates, endemic witness intimidation and a failure to punish crimes of gun violence.” To produce these results, the Inquirer conducted data analysis and found the rates from murder, rape, assault, robbery and illegal gun possession.
Tags: Court system; Murder; Rape; Robbery; Assault; Illegal gun possession; Defendants; Philadelphia; Crime; Violence; Conviction; Justice system
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Locking up criminals locks in rising costs
The paper examined the state's philosophy on being tough on crime but in a time of economic downturn, it may be better to increase the use of less costly probation for nonviolent offenders.
Tags: incarceration; drug problem; sentencing; imprisonment rate; computer-assisted analysis; treatment;
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Too Tough? Tactics in Suburban Policing
Some police departments in the Philadelphia area have been recording some of the highest arrest rates in American for minor offenses. These towns are mostly white, and the high number of arrests are made up overwhelmingly of African Americans. Legal experts say some of the arrests are unconstitutional. Furthermore, the towns with the highest arrest rates have actually seen crime go up, not down.
Tags: police; arrest; demographic; racial profiling; public records
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Arresting Image
"Crime in the National Football League. The story found that the arrest rate is less than the general population and that DUIs dominate. The issue is complicated by racial factors and media amplification."