Why Police Reform Fails, a collaboration among Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, the Missouri Independent, the St. Louis American and PRX, has been named a finalist for the 2022 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards.
The hourlong radio show and podcast takes a deep look at policing in St. Louis, a city that leads the nation in police killings per capita. In the six years since Ferguson, Missouri, made the region the epicenter of the police reform movement, St. Louis still hadn’t achieved a single substantive police reform. The show investigates the forces that have stymied reform measures and chronicles the ongoing efforts of a group of young Black leaders as they set out on a new path to take control of city politics.
This year, the duPont-Columbia Awards received a record number of entries. Judges selected 30 finalists, including FRONTLINE, The New York Times, Serial, Planet Money and 99% Invisible.
“This fearless coverage – embedding in COVID wards; slipping behind borders in war-torn Yemen; taking on local police departments for their civil rights violations – exemplifies the dedication of these finalists, many of whom took great risks to inform the public,” said Lisa R. Cohen, director of the duPont-Columbia Awards.
Winners will be announced in February.
Listen: Why Police Reform Fails
Read: ‘The Fight Has to Change’: Why Ferguson Activists Ditched Police Reform
Read: The Ferguson Movement Is on the Cusp of Revolutionizing Political Power in St. Louis