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 "police brutality" ...
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The Deadliest Place in Mexico
The Juarez Valley, a narrow corridor of green farmland carved from the Chihuahuan desert along the Rio Grande, was once known for its cotton, which rivaled Egypt’s. But that was before the Juarez cartel moved in to set up a lucrative drug smuggling trade. “The Deadliest Place in Mexico” explores untold aspects of Mexico’s drug war as it has played out in the small farming communities of this valley. The violence began in 2008, when the Sinaloa cartel moved in to take over the Juarez cartel’s turf. The Mexican government sent in the military to quell the violence — but instead the murder rate exploded. While the bloodshed in the nearby City of Juarez attracted widespread media attention, the violence spilling into the rural Juarez Valley received far less, eve as the killings began to escalate in brutal ways. Community advocates, elected officials, even police officers were shot down in the streets. Several residents were stabbed in the face with ice picks. By 2009, the valley, with a population of 20,000, had a murder rate six times higher than Juarez itself. Newspapers began to call the rural farming region the “Valley of Death.” This investigation uses extensive Freedom of Information Act requests, court documents, and difficult-to-obtain interviews in Spanish and English with current and former Juarez Valley residents, Mexican officials, narcotraffickers and U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials, to reveal that many of these shocking deaths were perpetrated with the participation of Mexican authorities. It shows scenes of devastation — households where six members of a single family were killed, without a single police investigation. It uncovers targeted killings by masked gunmen of community activists and innocent residents for speaking out against violence and repression facilitated by corrupt military and government officials. And it gathers multiple witnesses who describe soldiers themselves, working in league with the Sinaloa cartel, perpetrating violence against civilians. "The cemeteries are all full. There isn't anywhere left to bury the bodies," one former resident said. "You'll find nothing there but ghost towns and soldiers."
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New Orleans Police
CBS News takes an in depth look at the allegations of police brutality in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Federal investigators uncovered at least three murders and filed charges against a dozen police officers. The investigation determines why and how the chaos led to the crimes.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina; police; investigation; police brutality; natural disaster; hurricane
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Off Duty Cops
For many years, abusive and illegal activity by officers of the Chicago Police Department has gone largely unchecked. This story highlighted two recent cases in which Chicagoans were beaten by off-duty cops, yet the "wall of silence" protected those officers until security camera videos of the events led to a public outcry. The story tried to show that these were not isolated incidents but were actually typical of the culture of the Chicago PD.
Tags: police brutality; illegal activity; Chicago Police Department; wall of silence; civilian compliant data; Police Complaint Center;
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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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I Didn't Do That Murder; New Light On Old Case
Based on questions reporter Christine Young raised in her reporting of a 1987 murder conviction, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, in a rare decision, is re-investigating the murder case of Michaelanne Hall, a prostitute brutally murdered in 1989. The man convicted for the crime, Lebrew Jones, was a mentally retarded security guard and his conviction rested on a nonsensical statement he gave to police. Now 51, Jones is awaiting DNA test results from the fingernail clippings of the murder victim. Also, a potentially viable suspect has emerged as a result of Young's work.
Tags: wrongful conviction; Manhattan medical examiner's office; prostitution; runaways; murder; DNA testing; Innocence Project; developmentally disabled
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Police relying on Taser as a fix-all on the force
Stettler investigates the use of Tasers by police and whether the weapon is truly safe or if it threatens the lives of people on which it is used. Two deaths were linked to Tasers over the past three years in Utah's largest law enforcement agencies.
Tags: law enforcement; stun gun; force, brutality; cop;
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Undue Force in Seaside Park
"A band of night-shift cops known as the "Justice League" would kick, beat, abuse and sometimes cripple handcuffed prisoners for little or no reason. Internal reports of abuse were ignored by the mayor and chief of police, even when they came from a dispatcher who witnessed the abuses. The officer that headed the Justice League is from a highly regarded family of judges, lawyers and real estate moguls, who became untouchable in the small town."
Tags: police brutality; Justice League; night-shift cops; prisoner abuse
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Latino Crime Victims
"Latino residents are more frequently victims of armed robbery because they tend to carry cash, often in large amounts. Also, they are more brutally robbed than their Caucasian and African American counterparts."
Tags: Latino; robbery; armed robbery; assault Wilmington Police; immigrant;
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Pasadena Jail Death of Inmate Pedro Gonzales
This story exposes how police brutality led to the death of prison inmate Pedro Gonzales Jr. Police orginally blamed the death on injuries from tripping and falling, but Crowe's shoe-leather reporting enabled him to tell a more complete version of the story.