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 "traffic convictions" ...
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Speed Unlimited
In fiscal year 2005-06, only 2.4 percent of people with serious speeding tickets (going more than 55 mph and more than 15 miles over the limit) were convicted as charged. This series reveals loopholes in state law that encourage prosecutors and judges to let speeders get away with their crimes. This sort of leniency is dangerous, as many people each year die from speed-related collisions.
Tags: speeding; traffic accidents; highway; transportation; state government; police
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Beating the Rap
This investigation revealed the corrupt and unfair way that Iowa's county prosecutors handle traffic violations. The reporter found that speeding convictions were often set aside and replaced with fictitious "equipment violations" that brought in more money to the department and let the drivers stay on the road. Some charges were downgraded when the drivers agreed to donate money to local police or local charities. These stories raised many legal and safety issues and prompted radical reform.
Tags: speeding; drunk driving; DUI; DWI; car insurance; sheriff; county prosecutor; bribery; corruption
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Crashing For Cash
A Sun-Sentinel series explores the dimensions of auto-insurance fraud in Florida. The investigation finds that "phony crash rings ... operate throughout the state." The stories showcase the main players and their scenarios, and concludes that "even when they are caught, most avoid prison time." A key finding is also that "chiropractors and medical clinics that specialize in traffic accident injuries routinely have paid cash for new patients...and have submitted phony or padded billings to auto insurers. " Lawyers and testing brokers are also exposed as participants in the vicious circle. The reporters reveal that the state officials in charge are reluctant to handle the problem. For example, "Florida's Division of Insurance Fraud ... actually closes more than 90 percent of its investigations without an arrest," and "the state's Board of Chiropractic Medicine routinely permits chiropractors convicted of insurance fraud to continue practicing..."
Tags: auto insurance; traffic accidents; claims; chiropractors; pain clinics; corruption; crime; Florida's Division of Insurance Fraud; doctors; diskette included
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Courthouse Blues
KTRK-TV "... used hidden camera to prove cops were cheating the system... You get a traffic ticket, and you want to fight it in court. The cop who wrote the ticket will be there to testify against you. And chances are, he'll be getting overtime pay... But what if he snuck out of the courthouse while staying on the overtime clock? What if he wasn't there when court records said he was? What if he claimed four hours of overtime for testifying in your case when it was over in just one hour? What if he told his supervisors you got convicted - when you didn't? "
Tags: TAPE NO TRANSCRIPT CAR time report falsification Internal Affairs
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Out Of Control
The Kansas City Star analyzed Missouri driver's license records and traffic convictions and found Kansas City leading Missouri in alcohol-related accidents, convicted drunken drivers who continue to drive and number of drivers with 10 or more convictions for driving while drunk.
Tags: alcohol; drunken drivers; driver's license; traffic convictions
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1997 IRE TV Award Winners and Finalist.
The 1997 IRE TV Award Winners and Finalist tape is a compilation of 5 stories. 1.) "Blood Money," ABC News. Chilling video of the executions of Chinese prisoners and the selling of their organs to fund a profit-making organized criminal activity. See #14327. 2.) "Probable Cause," Dateline, NBC News. Systematic illegal traffic stops, brutal behavior and unfair drug seizures in Louisiana with a system where judges who decide cases benefit from ill-gotten gains and innocent citizens actually pay to go to court and get their appeals heard. See #14444. 3.) "License For Sale." KCBS, Los Angeles. An elaborate network for selling legitimate California driver licenses used for everything from getting government services to boarding commercial airlines. See # 14316. 4.) "Poor Justice? The Susan Cummings Story," KOMO, Seattle. The conviction and imprisonment of a 16-year-old girl for a murder she may not have committed. See #14305. 5.) "Military Medical Malpractice," WRAL, Raleigh N.C. Medical malpractice remains a well-kept military secret, with no one protecting millions of servicemen and women or their families from shocking standards and practices by inept doctors. See # 14287.
Tags: TAPE; crime; court; police; health care; veteran; hospital; foi; car; ire; no transcripts.
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Free Ride for Dangerous Drivers
The Hartford Courant found that "in Connecticut each year tens of thousands of motorists, many with convictions for reckless driving and other serious offenses, beat the system... In some parts of the state, 75 percent of those who challenge their tickets get the charges dropped. In the vast majority of cases, prosecutors don't even review the motorists' driving records and the defendants are not required to come to court."
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KC Police keep driving records almost spotless
Kansas City Star conducts a computer-assisted study of Missouri's motor vehicle records and finds that Kansas City's police officers, while off duty, rarely receive traffic violations in the city; the average city driver's chances of receiving a ticket are fifty times that of the average city police officer; members of the fire department receive twice as many traffic convictions as the average Missouri driver, with one-tenth of the force having their licences revoked in the past, Dec. 23, 1990.
Tags: None
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No title (id: 8179)
Baton Rouge Advocate inspects the driving records of East Baton Rouge Parish's school-bus drivers and finds that 37 percent have been in at least one bus wreck or have been convicted of at least one moving traffic violation; no driver has been fired in the past decade for poor driving, Feb. 10, 1991.
Tags: LA Eysink Porretto
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R.I. System fails to fully check driving records of bus applicants
Providence (R.I.) Journal-Bulletin looks into the records of school bus drivers; in the first story of its kind, the reporters used computer records to uncover a high rate of motor vehicle violations and a high rate of felony convictions; reports on the state's haphazard system for certifying drivers.