A bill that would require armed-guard applicants to undergo mental health evaluations is making its way through the California Senate.
Shoshana Walter
Reporter
Shoshana Walter is a reporter for Reveal, covering criminal justice. She and reporter Amy Julia Harris exposed how courts across the country are sending defendants to rehabs that are little more than lucrative work camps for private industry. Their work was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in national reporting. It also won the Knight Award for Public Service, a Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting, and an Edward R. Murrow Award, and was a finalist for the Selden Ring, IRE and Livingston Awards. It led to numerous government investigations, two criminal probes and five federal class-action lawsuits alleging slavery, labor violations and fraud.
Walter's investigation on America's armed security guard industry revealed how armed guard licenses have been handed out to people with histories of violence, even people barred by courts from owning guns. Walter and reporter Ryan Gabrielson won the 2015 Livingston Award for Young Journalists for national reporting based on the series, which prompted new laws and an overhaul of California’s regulatory system. For her 2016 investigation about the plight of "trimmigrants," marijuana workers in California's Emerald Triangle, Walter embedded herself in illegal mountain grows and farms. There, she encountered an epidemic of sex abuse and human trafficking in the industry – and a criminal justice system focused more on the illegal drugs. The story prompted legislation, a criminal investigation and grass-roots efforts by the community, including the founding of a worker hotline and safe house.
Walter began her career as a police reporter for The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida, and previously covered violent crime and the politics of policing in Oakland, California, for The Bay Citizen. Her narrative nonfiction as a local reporter garnered a national Sigma Delta Chi Award and a Gold Medal for Public Service from the Florida Society of News Editors. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she has been a Dart Center Ochberg fellow for journalism and trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim fellow in criminal justice journalism. She is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
Posted inGuns, Hired Guns
Unlike ‘Mall Cop,’ guards say their work is no laughing matter
Security guards on the big and small screens constantly flout their patrols and sleep on the job. But in reality, it’s one of the country’s most dangerous professions, with guards at a higher risk of violent injury on the job than police.
Posted inGuns, Hired Guns
California security firm involved in 3 shootings sees few consequences
Cal Force Security has voluntarily surrendered its license. But in its wake, the company left a trail of violent encounters that led to few, if any, consequences, according to readily available public reports.
Don't miss a story. Get our investigations and reporters’ insights delivered to your inbox.
Posted inGuns, Hired Guns
California lawmakers push for better regulation of security guards
A hearing today at the state Capitol set the stage for potential broad changes to California security guard regulations, including firearm training requirements and mental health screening for armed guards.
Posted inGuns, Hired Guns
California security firms stay in business after licenses are revoked
Dozens of California security companies have continued operating after regulators discovered abuses of power or evidence of mismanagement or fraud, according to a Reveal investigation. The state’s lax oversight and enforcement of the guard industry will be discussed at a hearing today in Sacramento.
Posted inGuns, Hired Guns
California lawmakers to hold hearing on armed security guard industry
A newly released report, which confirmed many of the findings of Reveal/CNN’s Hired Guns investigation of the armed security guard industry, will be the topic of a hearing Wednesday in the state’s Capitol.
Posted inGuns, Guns and Mental Health, Hired Guns
State legislators look for ways to tighten armed-guard regulations
In Arizona and other states, legislators are exploring regulatory changes for armed security guards to address problems exposed by our Hired Guns investigation.
Posted inGuns, Hired Guns
More colleges are arming campus police and security officers
In a new Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of more than 900 four-year colleges in the United States, 75 percent reported using armed guards on campus.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Guns, Hired Guns
Armed guard found guilty of assault had troubled law enforcement past
A licensed armed guard with a troubled history as a police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison and five years’ probation for brutally beating a man during an attempted arrest.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Guns, Hired Guns
Hired Guns: 9 takeaways from CIR’s series on armed security guards
Here are nine facts, culled from our Hired Guns investigation, to help you determine whether armed guards improve your safety.