Sam Stecklow

NEW: After @investigatewest.bsky.social used records from the IDOC & POST Council to report on sexual abuse in Idaho prisons, and @invisible.institute published police employment history data in the state, authorities are now changing policies to conceal both sources of information from the public.

A newly unearthed trove of police disciplinary records show that New York’s second-largest police force has minimized credible domestic violence allegations against its officers and staff. w/@muckrock.com.

🔔 How should the press respond when anonymous law enforcement officers evade scrutiny? Join our webinar to discuss how journalists can hold them accountable, with @samstecklow.bsky.social, @ravengeary.bsky.social, and Miriam Nemeth. 🗓️ Oct. 28, 2 pm ET/12 pm CT RSVP: freedom.press/law-enforcement

🔔 How should the press respond when anonymous law enforcement officers evade scrutiny? Join our webinar to discuss how journalists can hold them accountable, with @samstecklow.bsky.social, @ravengeary.bsky.social, and Miriam Nemeth. 🗓️ Oct. 28, 2 pm ET/12 pm CT RSVP: freedom.press/law-enforcement

new: federal authorities tapped into a network of flock license plate readers and surveillance cameras owned by chicagoland police during their failed attempts to prosecute marimar martinez and anthony ruiz for following immigration agents last october.

How can human rights investigators protect their data amid rising authoritarianism in the US and abroad? For the @techpolicypress.bsky.social podcast, I spoke with Maheen Khan from the Invisible Institute and Patrick Ball from HRDAG about the new Technology Freedom Cooperative.

NEW: Meltdowns, threats & FOP influence have marred the fight for civilian police accountability in Chicago. Some police district councilors question the future of the body they serve on as they battle CPD interests to get things done. The fault lines run deep. From @zoetakaki.bsky.social:

In the documentary short “Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon,” body-cam and bystander footage examine a confrontation between residents and federal agents. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

A Kalispel Tribal Police detective was fired in 2021 after lying about an arrest. He'd been fired at least twice before. Tribal agencies are a fraction of Washington’s police workforce, but a disproportionately common landing place for fired officers - www.investigatewest.org/fired-office...

Unreported traffic stops by Chicago police obscure the full picture of who officers are pulling over, says a local organizer. “It is really hard for the public to hold our authorities accountable when we are operating with flawed data.” (w/ Injustice Watch)

InvestigateWest, Invisible Institute sue Idaho for withholding police employment records www.investigatewest.org/investigatew...

More in questionable undercover designations in Minnesota policing:

Hennepin County sheriff conceals bodycam footage by calling officers ‘undercover’ even though they wear vests that say "sheriff," conduct traffic stops and sign criminal complaints with their names. My latest: minnesotareformer.com/2026/06/25/h...

Eighteen Chicago residents have filed legal claims following a 2025 immigration raid in South Shore. The claims cite reporting by Invisible Institute’s Maira Khwaja and South Side Weekly documenting the operation and its aftermath. Read reporting updates here: invisible.institute/all-investig...

New from me: two LAPD officers are facing decertification for the 2021 killing of Margarito Lopez Jr. during a mental health crisis. Chief of Police, Board of Police Commissioners, and Use of Force Review Board agreed the shooting was out of policy. They're still working w/ criminal charges pending.

Cook County prosecutors are asking judges to issue warrants for the arrest of immigrants who miss traffic court — even though they’ve already been deported. (Co-published with @chicagoreader.com)

I wrote about the man Tennessee plans to kill today. There is so much more to this story than one article can capture and it’s going to bother me for a long time. For @theintercept.com

Entre el 2 de septiembre y el 5 de mayo, el gobierno Trump había explotado 58 embarcaciones, causando la muerte de 179 personas. www.elclip.org/los-bombarde...

This story is part of a partnership between the Champaign-Urbana Civic Police Data Project of @invisible.institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit public accountability journalism organization, and IPM News.

Florida law does not explicitly require prosecutorial agencies to keep a Brady List – as evidenced by the fact that several don’t. Eight of the 20 state attorneys’ offices in the state told The Florida Trib they do not maintain a Brady List. w/ @muckrock.com floridatrib.org/2026/05/12/b...

A court sided with The Badger Project and its partner in their lawsuit demanding a list of all police officers in the state from the Department of Justice, which had repeatedly rejected requests for it.

Detroit Metro Times and Invisible Institute plan to appeal after judge sides with state police on FOIA exemptions.

NEW: Certificates of innocence are court orders that can make it easier for exonerated people to get jobs and housing. Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is trying to make them harder to get. (w/ @boltsmag.org) buff.ly/GAxhSl8

Leaked LAPD records reveal officers in fireworks blast received only brief suspensions. Good get from @liborjany.bsky.social www.latimes.com/california/s...

www.theborderchronicle.com/the-dna-arch... Sharing this newly published investigation, coreported by me and a colleague. The DNA database crucial in migrant identification in the borderlands for years has itself gone missing. Co-published by @theborderchronicle.bsky.social and @highcountrynews.org

Great new series on wandering cops in NC from @lucasthomae.bsky.social. As he reports, officials there are failing to track why officers are leaving their agencies, a crucial data point in preventing wandering cops. The data that exists is available on the National Police Index, national.cpdp.co.

Great reporting from @readfrontier.bsky.social about the state law blocking access to basic police employment history data in Oklahoma. It's one of just a handful of states where @invisible.institute hasn't been able to access data for the National Police Index.

Excited to talk about using @invisible.institute’s National Police Index tool and accessing police misconduct and employment history data in the Pacific Northwest with my colleague Maheen Khan and @wilsonc.bsky.social of @investigatewest.bsky.social later today. Registrations are still open:

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The National Police Index’s brand new website provides unprecedented public access to police employment records from across the United States and allows users to track law enforcement employment records across 24 states — searchable by officer name, agency, and more. national.cpdp.co/

Join us and @investigatewest.bsky.social on March 12 to learn how to find police employment and misconduct data in Idaho, Oregon and Washington — and how to use it in real accountability reporting. Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Brad Miller, the embattled Pinal County attorney who lied about using Signal, sure knows how to pick 'em. As @stephenlemons.bsky.social lays out, Miller's hand-picked top investigator, Richard Mueller, is a disgraced cop with a long history of misconduct. Story:

INVESTIGATION: Over the last 5 months, the Banner and a coalition of partners analyzed 52 hours of footage and thousands of pages of documents from a joint THP/ICE operation targeting Nashville’s predominantly immigrant neighborhoods. Here’s what we found: (1/11) ✍️ @sarahgracetaylor.bsky.social

Everybody talks abstractly about how a quarter-century of far-right governance turned one of the most culturally and politically diverse states into New Hungary, but this ground-level look at Floridians and ICE really drives home the fascism of it all www.floridabulldog.org/2026/02/terr...

Our reporting on Idaho prisons used public records to identify dozens of guards who resigned after misconduct — and it was met by calls for transparency from the governor. Instead, the state decided those records are no longer public. W/@invisible.institute: www.investigatewest.org/idaho-record...

Idaho’s prison system will no longer release information about whether an officer retired, resigned or was fired. It comes after we used those records to expose alleged sexual misconduct by dozens of prison guards. w/ the @invisible.institute - www.investigatewest.org/idaho-record...

In Missouri, there is no state law that automatically revokes a convicted police officer’s license. That must change. I explain why in my latest column for the Kansas City Star Editorial Board. To read the piece, click on the link below. LINK 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-...

NEW: Puerto Rico municipal police officers are calling federal immigration agencies when they encounter migrants during traffic stops and at court hearings. In one instance, the cops held migrants at their police station until CBP arrived. 1/x thelatinonewsletter.org/p/puerto-ric...

NEW: It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable when they violate the Constitution and the law.

NEW: since last year, a pair of "highly trained" feds have been involved in an array of incidents attacking crowds with chemical weapons. We used public records and open source analysis to identify Edgar Vazquez and Michael Sveum, alongside some other members of their tactical team. Read more:

1/ BREAKING: Government documents reviewed by ProPublica identify Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, as the two who fired their weapons during the deadly encounter with Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

EXCLUSIVE: These Patches Are Clues to Identifying Immigration Agents We built a guide to patches worn by ICE and CBP to help the public determine which federal agents are in their communities theintercept.com/2026/01/28/i...

There were witnesses. And victim accounts. One man was stripped of his certification for "criminal conduct" and "inappropriate sexual conduct while on duty." But it wasn't enough to charge 2 Idaho prison guards accused of sexually abusing multiple women. www.investigatewest.org/two-idaho-pr...

The need for law enforcement transparency & accountability has never been clearer – especially as ICE wreaks havoc on communities. But police misconduct has always been hard to track, penalize, and prevent. These resources aim to change that 🧵

Fascinating to see former Utah police chief Ken Wallentine cited here as a use of force “consultant” voicing concerns about ICE tactics. Wallentine spent years writing policies that protect cops who use force for Lexipol, and nearly all of his “consulting” in lawsuits has been on behalf of police.

NEW, by me: Loose Rules Let State Police Hand Out Lax Penalties for Serious Misconduct The agency's disciplinary system is weaker than other large departments in NY. Troopers who committed serious misconduct have been allowed to remain on the job. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...

Here's what I've been working on the past two and a half years: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...