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 training" ...
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Driven To Distraction
This seven-month-long investigation revealed serious crashes, injuries and deaths caused by a danger that now exists in virtually every police car in the United States. Dashboard-mounted technology has turned modern patrol cars into offices on wheels. Computers, cameras, GPS devices, radios, smart phones and license plate scanners compete for the officer’s attention while driving, and the consequences of those distractions can be life altering. The series led to significant policy changes at two of the largest police departments in Texas. It sparked action from the world’s largest organization of police leaders. And our reporting also became mandatory safety training viewing for every highway trooper in one state.
Tags: Police; patrol cars; crashes; injuries; deaths; driving safety; highway trooper
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The Arming Question
Princeton Public Safety officers are sworn police officers who have the same training and enforce the same laws as local police officers, and they are responsible for responding to the same incidents -- including armed incidents -- as local officers. Yet University Public Safety officers are forbidden from carrying guns. Despite the Virginia Tech shootings and three gun scares on Princeton's campus in recent years, the University has been steadfast in its opposition to arming its officers. But our investigation casts doubt on the University's conclusion that keeping officers unarmed will not affect the response to a shooter on campus and that arming would negatively impact student-officer relationships.
Tags: campus safety; Princeton University; guns; police officers
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How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam
Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, regularly declares that the police must be our "eyes and ears" in the effort the secure the United States against terrorism. Over the last ten years, this conviction has fed billions of federal and state dollars to a flourishing market in counterterrorism courses for state and local law enforcement. No one, however, has been paying attention to what cops are actually taught.
Tags: police; Department of Homeland Security; terrorism; counterterrorism
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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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They Got the Sheriff
Orange County, Calif Sheriff Mike Carona was praised for values and ethics on a national level. However Moxley found that he had connections with a strip club owner "tied tot he Chicago Mafia," slept with women on duty and "promoted officers based on personal loyalty not competence."
Tags: police; sheriff; Mike Carona; mafia; strip club; Las Vegas; Orange County; Lebanon; anti-terrorism training exercises; police department
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Teens at the Wheel
A special report by the Tribune examines the dangers of poorly trained teenage drivers. Photos of 59 Chicago-area teens who died in car accidents in the year 2006 are included in the package, which also has graphics and charts detailing the locations and numbers of deaths. Individual stories include police views, the grief of families whose children died, what some parents and young people are doing to raise awareness of the need to drive intelligently, and Illinois lawmakers' push for new laws regarding how to obtain and keep a driver's license.
Tags: Teen drivers; car accidents; teen driving deaths; seat belts; drivers license laws
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Private Security in a Post-9/11 World
As the focal point of a study of the private guard industry in New York state, WNYC looks at Tristar Patrol Services, "which had seen a dramatic expansion after the September 11 attack in NYC, getting more than $80 million in contract work with the City of New York." The company had more than a thousand employees, mostly young minority males, and they had the task of protecting all of the city's office space, infrastructure and Fire Department facilities. The investigation found that Tristar's owner, Gary Zimmer, had been convicted of assault and had to resign as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yet attained the right to hold a security guard company license when a judge, believing the owner's misrepresentation of his criminal case, granted him an exemption from state law. In addition, there were other issues as Tristar "had been disqualified from doing state work for misrepresenting it had properly credentialed guards, but went on to win a multi-million dollar, multi-year City contract." The company failed to properly compensate guards, including not paying for vacation or advanced state security credentials, and Tristar also did not pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars it was required to pay the union representing the guards to cover union dues and health and welfare benefits required by the contract." But because of the New York Secretary of State's lack of investigators, regulations were not enforced. Also, there is no uniform requirement across the country for the training and qualifications for security guards and companies.
Tags: Private security; Sept. 11, 2001; Tristar Patrol Services; Gary Zimmer; New York City security
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Broken Promises, Broken Lives
An investigation finds "widespread mistreatment of mentally retarded and mentally ill people in Missouri, including sexual assaults, beatings and neglect in thousands of incidents that led to hundreds of injuries and 21 deaths." Further, the state has not followed its own law and policies in the investigation and reporting of the mistreatment, drawing the ire of the federal government. In addition, the police and prosecutors did not always do their own investigations "of suspicious incidents." The newspaper also discovered that "the public and private system of care relies on underpaid, overworked caregivers in dangerous jobs with little training."
Tags: Mentally retarded; handicapped; sexual assault; beating; neglect; sexual offenders
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Aches and Claims
The Herald-Leader found that Lexington police and firefighters retire on tax-free disability more than three times as often as Kentucky State Police officers. Many of these retirees then go on to new jobs, including ones similar to those that they were supposedly too disabled to perform. Others lead active lifestyles, including marathon running and training for war. Many retirees are some of Lexington's most notorious officers, retiring on disability before they can be fired or disciplined.
Tags: police; firefighters; disability; worker's compensation; law enforcement; public employees
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Military Outsourcing in Iraq (series)
The author investigated the outsourcing of the Iraqi War by the US government. The reports covered the use of private contractors to train the Iraqi police force, the problems they encountered despite the positive spin from high ranking American military officials and presented a slide show of the training process, giving a visual indication of the difficulty faced by the trainers.
Tags: military; Iraq; Iraqi War; War on Terrorism; Iraqi Police Force; private security contractors; infiltration; insurgents; exit strategy; troop reductions; U.S State Department; SAIC; DynCorp