One of the nation’s most prestigious journalism awards recognized the Reveal radio show and podcast for its explosive story about a police practice across California where officers question family members before telling them that law enforcement killed their relative.
The George Polk Awards selected Reveal’s Nov. 11, 2023 episode, “We Regret to Inform You,” in the Justice category, which was reported by Brian Howey in collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley, and the Los Angeles Times. Others involved in producing the story include Najib Aminy, producer; Jenny Casas, editor; Jim Briggs and Fernando Arruda, composers and sound designers; and Brett Myers and Taki Telonidis, interim co-executive producers.
“Police departments have come under greater scrutiny in recent years for killing civilians, and yet few people know the chilling lengths law enforcement may go to to tarnish the image of someone after they died,” said Myers. “The dogged reporting by Brian Howey showed just how common this practice of misleading families truly is in California.”
After police kill someone, those same departments are often responsible for notifying the family. Best practices suggest that this difficult notification should be done as quickly and as clearly as possible. However, Howey uncovered that many law enforcement agencies across California have employed a different and more contentious approach.
Instead of delivering the news of the death immediately, investigators were first asking family members about the person who was killed to get as much information as possible about their relative, much of it unflattering. Howey’s reporting confirmed at least 20 instances where law enforcement used this tactic.
He also found that police departments and their attorneys would sometimes use that information to paint those killed by police as mentally ill, violent drug addicts, or deadbeat parents, in an attempt to reduce settlements paid to families. Essentially, law enforcement was arguing that the lives of those killed by police were worth less because of what families had disclosed before knowing their relatives had been killed.
“This kind of investigative reporting that highlights abuses of power, and the fact Reveal reaches such a large audience each week across 520 radio stations, is exciting for the future of journalism,” said Clara Jeffery, who became Editor-in-Chief of Reveal after its Feb. 1, 2024 merger with Mother Jones.
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are sponsored by Long Island University, and notable past honorees include Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Christiane Amanpour, I.F. Stone, Isabel Wilkerson, James Baldwin, Russell Baker, Norman Mailer, and Seymour Hersh.
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