(WXYZ) — A year-long WXYZ-TV investigation into widespread misconduct inside the Detroit Police Department was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists with a national Sigma Delta Chi award.
The investigative series was honored in the category of public service among the 50 largest television markets in the country.
Among 1,413 entries from across the nation, the 7 Action News investigation was one of 74 total winners.
Investigative reporter Ross Jones, video editor Randy Lundquist and photographers Ramon Rosario and Johnny Sartin collaborated on the project.
“Such thorough and dogged accountability reporting is essential to uncovering the powerful agencies that are in urgent need of systemic change in our communities," said the Sigma Delta Chi jury.
Other winning news organizations include CBS News' 60 Minutes, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Propublica.
The 7 Action News probe into DPD revealed how the city’s most troubled officers remained on the force, triggered an overhaul of the department’s disciplinary system and forced the department to identify 128 current officers—or 5% of the department— as “high risk.”
The officers are now subject to retraining, further discipline or termination.
Over the course of a year, WXYZ’s reporting revealed:
- a sergeant who amassed 85 citizen complaints and repeatedly engaged in racial profiling, excessive force, lying and use of racist language
- an officer accused by three different women of domestic violence that was charged twice by the county prosecutor but remained on the force
- an officer disciplined 29 separate times, suspended for 77 total days and involved in 9 different traffic rashes that was inexplicably promoted to sergeant
- how an officer with a history of misconduct escaped discipline, only to later conduct an improper vehicle chase resulting in a young woman’s death
- a sergeant sued 13 times, costing taxpayers nearly $1 million in settlements alone
- an officer who struck three handcuffed detainees in the head but faced little punishment
- that 113 officers on the force today have tallied at least 30 citizen complaints, 59 officers had been sued at least 5 times and 93 had been disciplined in excess of 10 times.
WXYZ’s reporting was used to dictate new policy within the department, and continues today.