Sam Stecklow
@samstecklow.bsky.social
journalist & FOIA fellow @invisible.institute indie local news cheerleader if you were really smart, you’d know what to do orlando he/him
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-...
Inside an Immigration Arrest That Sparked a Neighborhood Protest
In the documentary short “Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon,” body-cam and bystander footage examine a confrontation between residents and federal agents.
newyorker.com
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...
Washington tribal police hire fired officers at outsized rates
Tribal police in Washington hire officers fired elsewhere at a rate four times higher than their share of the workforce
investigatewest.org
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)
Chicago Police Promised to 'Fix' Secret Traffic Stops. A Year Later, the Problem Has Only Gotten Worse. - Bolts
As Chicago’s top cop steps down, police are making fewer traffic stops. But our new investigation finds half of stops are still not being reported to oversight agencies, despite a state law mandating disclosure.
boltsmag.org
The FBI found that an officer violently threatened transgender people on TikTok. His agency investigated, he resigned. He went on to work at two other departments. He’s one of 148 officers disciplined for biased conduct. Most kept their jobs. w @emilymzentner.bsky.social & Marnette Federis
California Agencies Disciplined Officers for Biased Conduct, but They Rarely Lost Their Jobs | KQED
California disciplinary records show officers who used racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ language often kept their jobs after agencies sustained misconduct findings.
kqed.org
InvestigateWest, Invisible Institute sue Idaho for withholding police employment records www.investigatewest.org/investigatew...
InvestigateWest, Invisible Institute sue for Idaho records
The lawsuit accuses Idaho State Police and the Idaho Department of Correction of concealing public records in response to critical reporting
investigatewest.org
More in questionable undercover designations in Minnesota policing:
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is suing the Minnesota POST forreleasing the names of undercover police officers to media outlets, but many have already been publiclyidentified.
sahanjournal.com
max nesterak@maxnesterak.bsky.social · last mo.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...
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...
Hennepin County sheriff conceals bodycam footage by calling officers ‘undercover’ • Minnesota Reformer
Allanzo Johnson had just left a corner store in north Minneapolis when he noticed a black pickup truck pull out behind him. It trailed him for half a dozen blocks and then its police lights flicked on...
minnesotareformer.com
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.
LAPD officers face loss of police certifications after fatal South Central shooting
Officers Jose Zavala and Julio Quintanilla could be the first to have their policing powers removed in California under Senate Bill 2.
lapublicpress.org
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)
ICE deported them. Cook County prosecutors still want them arrested for missing court.
Cook County prosecutors are asking judges to issue warrants for people who were no-shows in traffic court — because they had already been deported.
buff.ly
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
False Testimony Sent Tony Carruthers to Death Row. Tennessee Is About to Kill Him.
Carruthers’s murder conviction hinged on the claims of paid informant, who has repeatedly recanted his testimony.
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...
Los Bombardeados: sin derecho a la defensa
Una investigación que busca revelar quiénes son las víctimas y cuáles han sido los efectos colaterales de los bombardeos de Estados Unidos a supuestas narcolanchas en el Caribe y el Océano Pacífico de...
elclip.org
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.
People with mental illness are stuck in Illinois jails awaiting treatment. A task force seeks solutions - IPM Newsroom
Hundreds of people found unfit to stand trial in Illinois wait months in county jails for a psychiatric bed. Despite an amendment intended to help defendants access treatment more quickly, wait times ...
ipmnewsroom.org
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...
Brady List: The little-known roster of cops who molest, lie, steal or drive drunk
Florida law does not explicitly require prosecutorial agencies to keep a Brady List – as evidenced by the fact that several don’t.
floridatrib.org
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.
Wisconsin DOJ must release statewide list of 16,000 cops, judge rules
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.
thebadgerproject.org
Detroit Metro Times and Invisible Institute plan to appeal after judge sides with state police on FOIA exemptions.
Michigan court says you don’t have a right to know who your cops are - Detroit Metro Times
A Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled that state policing regulators can keep secret the names and employment histories of current and former officers throughout the state, but Metro Times and the In...
metrotimes.com
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
Cook County prosecutor fights to block exonerated people from clearing their names
Certificates of innocence can help exonerated people get jobs and housing. State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is making them harder to get.
injusticewatch.org
Leaked LAPD records reveal officers in fireworks blast received only brief suspensions. Good get from @liborjany.bsky.social www.latimes.com/california/s...
Leaked LAPD records reveal officers in fireworks blast received only brief suspensions
The LAPD has cited state law as the reason for not disclosing information related to the June 2021 explosion that leveled much of a South L.A. city block, but investigative files associated with the i...
latimes.com
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
The DNA Archive Built to Identify the Border’s Missing Has Vanished
The Colibrí Center for Human Rights was a vital link between families and their missing loved ones. But now it's gone dark.
theborderchronicle.com
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.
Stray Cops
'Wandering officers,' forced out only to be rehired elsewhere have a high rate of further misconduct. Current NC policies don't track or prevent this.
carolinapublicpress.org
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.
The Frontier@readfrontier.bsky.social · 5mo agoCharges against one officer illustrate how confidential records can hide when officers accused of wrongdoing move between departments.
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:
Invisible Institute@invisible.institute · 5mo agoJoin 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...
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:
Embattled Pinal County prosecutor’s top investigator is disgraced cop
Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller hired Richard Mueller to lead his investigators -- despite Mueller's long rap sheet.
phoenixnewtimes.com
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
How ICE, THP targeted Nashville immigrants, inflated safety claims - Nashville Banner
Analysis shows Tennessee state troopers and ICE agents profiled and disparaged immigrants during Nashville enforcement operation in May 2025.
nashvillebanner.com
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...
Terror, indifference and division limit ICE resistance in South Florida
By Noreen Marcus, FloridaBulldog.org - Terror, indifference and division limit ICE resistance in South Florida, insiders say
floridabulldog.org
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 won’t let public see if a cop was fired or resigned
State agencies will no longer release information about whether an officer retired, resigned or was fired
investigatewest.org
