Brian Howey

To @steelandballast.bsky.social, @jmitchellnews.bsky.social, Mukta Joshi, Nate Rosenfield, Najib Aminy and Steph Quinn of @mississippitoday.org in collaboration with @nytimes.com Local Investigations Fellowship and @revealnews.org for their investigations in one Mississippi county.

Videos Show Guards at Mississippi Jail Mocking Intellectually Disabled Inmate Warning: Video may be disturbing to some viewers. https://youtube.com/shorts/TVwMxa_elOA?si=wuM-PwqE4k-TCduO Days after guards used an electric vest to shock a man in exchange for a Coke, they shared....

Videos reveal officers inside the Rankin County, Mississippi, mocking and laughing at an intellectually disabled inmate.

@jmitchellnews.bsky.social, Mukta Joshi, Nate Rosenfield, and @steelandballast.bsky.social report for @mississippitoday.org.

*Warning: disturbing images. bit.ly/4aszoT9

In officer-involved shootings, some police interrogate family about victim before disclosing their death When police kill someone, they have to notify the family. Some officers are using that moment for something else.

Howey started looking into this advice, and found that officers have been using this tactic across California, and the information families disclosed affected the families' lawsuits later.

This award-winning episode of @revealnews.org details this investigation in full:

California police are using a controversial tactic after someone dies in their custody When police kill someone, they have to notify the family. Some officers are using that moment for something else.

As @steelandballast.bsky.social reported in 2024, Bruce Praet, who runs Lexipol, offered this advice to cops:

If the police kill someone, officers should first ask the family about the victim to get as much unflattering info as possible before delivering the news of their loved one's death.

California cops can no longer conceal police killings while interrogating loved ones for dirt A Reveal investigation helped spark a crackdown on a disturbing, widespread practice.

A new California law will effectively ban officers from questioning the families of people killed by police before alerting them to the news of their loved one's death.

This practice was popularized by Lexipol, the nation’s largest developer of law enforcement policy manuals. 🧵

How a ‘Goon Squad’ of Mississippi deputies got away with years of brutality A “Goon Squad” of Rankin County sheriff’s deputies spent years brutalizing people until their reign of terror was exposed.

Today, we published the latest chapter of our reporting on the Rankin County Goon Squad with Reveal. It’s the story Andie Murphy and her quest to expose decades-long reign of terror by the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department.

Listen on your favorite podcast app!
revealnews.org/podcast/miss...

Ex-Miss. deputy describes rampant violence by ‘Goon Squad’ Rankin County deputies regularly entered homes without warrants, beat people to get information and illegally seized evidence, a fromer deputy said..

An imprisoned former deputy from the notorious Goon Squad case said he + colleagues performed hundreds of warrantless raids and many violent beatings during his time at the Rankin County Sheriff’s Dept. in MS.

Our latest for @mississippitoday.org, @nytimes.com
mississippitoday.org/2025/02/21/e...

We won a DuPont!

You can listen to the winning episode here:
revealnews.org/podcast/we-r...

Professor and alums win prestigious duPont-Columbia Awards for investigative stories Professor Jennifer LaFleur and alums Brian Howey (’22) and Steven Rascón (’22) have won prestigious duPont-Columbia Awards, which honor the year’s best audio and video “reporting, storytelling and imp...

DuPont-Columbia Awards to Prof. @jlaf.bsky.social
+ alum Steven Rascon and teams for "40 Acres and a Lie" and to alum @steelandballast.bsky.social for "We Regret to Inform You" — developed in our Investigative Reporting Program w/ @davidbarstow.bsky.social journalism.berkeley.edu/dupont-colum...

But across MS, agencies don't use Taser logs to track officer stun gun use & many didn't know how to retrieve their logs when we requested them, so we bought a special Taser download cable and drove it around the state, showing several depts how to use it.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/i...

‘Did You Tase Him in the Face!?’ Inside ‘Goon Squad’ Deputies’ Group Chat Years of messages from an encrypted WhatsApp text thread show conversations of sheriff’s deputies, including those who terrorized Mississippi residents.

Some deputies joked about abusive Taser use in a private WhatsApp channel we unearthed last year...
www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/u...

...And several former deputies, including those convicted of torturing two Black men with stun guns, told us Rankin Co. Sheriff's Dept. leaders rarely reviewed their Taser logs, allowing them to hide abusive Taser use by simply not reporting it.
www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/u...

How a ‘Goon Squad’ of Deputies Got Away With Years of Brutality (Published 2023) They barged into homes in the middle of the night, then held people down while they beat and choked them, witnesses said. For years, signs of the violence went ignored.

...Because in 2023, we found that sheriff's deputies in Rankin County, MS, had used their Tasers to torture multiple people over the course of 20 years...
www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/u...

Mississippi Police Use Tasers Freely, and Injuries Follow A lack of state standards leaves Mississippi police and sheriff’s departments on their own to decide when to use stun guns, and many give officers a free hand.

The Taser logs also revealed at least 16 instances where officers inaccurately reported their Taser deployments in official incident reports. The context of these findings is very serious in Mississippi...
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/u...

...In other cases, department leaders said their officers were testing the weapons -- or fooling around with them. One deputy told us he used his Taser to kill spiders ⚡️🕷️

Taser logs, which record every time a stun gun is triggered, revealed more than 600 instances at dozens of agencies where officers triggered their Tasers for dangerously long durations. Agencies couldn't explain why officers had triggered the weapons in many of those cases...

In Mississippi, police set their own rules about shocking people with Tasers, with little fear of repercussions. Many departments have held on to vague, outdated policies that allow officers to shock virtually anyone they feel is a threat.

Mississippi Police Use Tasers Freely, and Injuries Follow A lack of state standards leaves Mississippi police and sheriff’s departments on their own to decide when to use stun guns, and many give officers a free hand.

We analyzed digital records of Taser deployments at law enforcement agencies across Mississippi and found that officers frequently trigger their stun guns far beyond what is considered safe 🧵
@nytimes.com @mississippitoday.org
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/u...

60th Annual Competition Fellowship Winners for 2025 - APF Staff Eight compelling projects will be undertaken in the coming year by tenaccomplished journalists, who are the newest recipients of an Alicia Patterson grant. Their topicsrange from abuses of migrants ho...

Absolutely honored that Nate Rosenfield and I were selected to be 2025 Alicia Patterson Fellows!

Thank you, APF judges,for believing in and supporting our work as we continue to investigate the use of torture by law enforcement.
aliciapatterson.org/apf/60th-ann...

SFPD in ‘substantial compliance’ with reform, ending era of state monitoring California Dept. of Justice found SFPD made serious progress in addressing 272 recommendations—but warned March's Prop. E is a concern.

The California Dept. of Justice said today that SFPD is in "substantial compliance" w/reform efforts, & that it would end its monitoring of the dept.

But, the state warned, March's Prop. E threatened "forward progress" on use-of-force.

via @jrivanob.bsky.social

missionlocal.org/2025/01/sfpd...

“I Have Lost Everything”: The Toll of Cities’ Homeless Sweeps Cities often take belongings — including important documents and irreplaceable mementos — when they conduct sweeps of homeless encampments. ProPublica gave notecards to people across the country so th...

For the past year, @propublica.org has been reporting on the toll when a city "sweeps" an encampment. We handed out cards so folks could write in their own words what it meant to have their belongings trashed.

We're publishing dozens of those stories here:

projects.propublica.org/impact-of-ho...

Video shows officers beating inmate Robert Brooks at New York correctional facility before his death The New York attorney general's office released new police body-worn camera video Friday as part of its investigation into the fatal beating of an inmate upstate.

Video shows officers beating inmate Robert Brooks at New York correctional facility before his death

Facing Decades in Prison, a Mississippi Mother Defied a Prosecutor and a Hazy Legal Theory A prosecutor had been threatening mothers who used drugs while pregnant with long sentences — until Brandy Moore fought the case against her.

Mississippi women are being charged with violent crimes and face 20 years in prison if their newborn child tests positive for drugs.

This is the story of one woman who fought back against her charges.

More impactful reporting from Anna Wolfe…
mississippitoday.org/2024/12/12/m...

Investigative Reporting on Health Insurance from ProPublica. Read the latest health insurance investigations from ProPublica.

Our stories build on years of reporting that has detailed the enormous struggles with insurance that Americans face as they try to access medically necessary health care: www.propublica.org/topics/healt...

UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’...

NEW: After reviewing leaked documents, we have found UnitedHealth is strategically limiting access to a treatment for thousands of children with autism across the country in order to cut costs.

Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.

www.propublica.org/article/unit...

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A young Black man’s death reflects a shocking racial disparity in police pursuits Across the country, police chases claim nearly 700 lives a year. Black people are far more likely to die from them.

More incredible reporting on fatal police pursuits from @susien.bsky.social & @jennifergollan.bsky.social

www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’...

NEW: Another shocking story by @anniewaldman.bsky.social about UnitedHealthcare's secret internal cost-cutting campaign that targets the treatment of children with autism, treatment that the company itself acknowledged as the "evidence-based gold standard": www.propublica.org/article/unit...

Trump taps culture warrior and S.F. attorney Harmeet Dhillon to lead Office of Civil Rights She has filed numerous cases with roots in California, lawsuits that attempt to skewer the “woke” and expose “cancel culture.”

www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

@sfchronicle.com

Duong family allegedly paid for 2022 election hit pieces to help elect Sheng Thao New court documents allege Fruitvale businessman Mario Juarez orchestrated an election scheme paid for by 2 powerful city contractors.

Oakland's Duong family, CWS, and a security company allegedly paid for 2022 election hit pieces to help elect Sheng Thao, according to the Alameda County DA's office.

oaklandside.org/2024/12/10/d...

Obamacare coverage for DACA recipients in 19 states blocked by federal judge The ruling applies only to the Republican-led states that filed the lawsuit, leaving the Biden administration rule in effect elsewhere.

A federal judge blocks a Biden administration rule that allowed DACA recipients to sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.