Excited to talk about using @invisible.institute’s National Police Index tool and accessing police misconduct and employment history data in the Pacific Northwest with my colleague Maheen Khan and @wilsonc.bsky.social of @investigatewest.bsky.social later today. Registrations are still open:

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The National Police Index’s brand new website provides unprecedented public access to police employment records from across the United States and allows users to track law enforcement employment records across 24 states — searchable by officer name, agency, and more. national.cpdp.co/

Join us and @investigatewest.bsky.social on March 12 to learn how to find police employment and misconduct data in Idaho, Oregon and Washington — and how to use it in real accountability reporting. Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Brad Miller, the embattled Pinal County attorney who lied about using Signal, sure knows how to pick 'em. As @stephenlemons.bsky.social lays out, Miller's hand-picked top investigator, Richard Mueller, is a disgraced cop with a long history of misconduct. Story:

INVESTIGATION: Over the last 5 months, the Banner and a coalition of partners analyzed 52 hours of footage and thousands of pages of documents from a joint THP/ICE operation targeting Nashville’s predominantly immigrant neighborhoods. Here’s what we found: (1/11) ✍️ @sarahgracetaylor.bsky.social

Everybody talks abstractly about how a quarter-century of far-right governance turned one of the most culturally and politically diverse states into New Hungary, but this ground-level look at Floridians and ICE really drives home the fascism of it all www.floridabulldog.org/2026/02/terr...

Our reporting on Idaho prisons used public records to identify dozens of guards who resigned after misconduct — and it was met by calls for transparency from the governor. Instead, the state decided those records are no longer public. W/@invisible.institute: www.investigatewest.org/idaho-record...

Idaho’s prison system will no longer release information about whether an officer retired, resigned or was fired. It comes after we used those records to expose alleged sexual misconduct by dozens of prison guards. w/ the @invisible.institute - www.investigatewest.org/idaho-record...

NEW: After @investigatewest.bsky.social used records from the IDOC & POST Council to report on sexual abuse in Idaho prisons, and @invisible.institute published police employment history data in the state, authorities are now changing policies to conceal both sources of information from the public.

In Missouri, there is no state law that automatically revokes a convicted police officer’s license. That must change. I explain why in my latest column for the Kansas City Star Editorial Board. To read the piece, click on the link below. LINK 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-...

NEW: Puerto Rico municipal police officers are calling federal immigration agencies when they encounter migrants during traffic stops and at court hearings. In one instance, the cops held migrants at their police station until CBP arrived. 1/x thelatinonewsletter.org/p/puerto-ric...

NEW: It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable when they violate the Constitution and the law.

NEW: since last year, a pair of "highly trained" feds have been involved in an array of incidents attacking crowds with chemical weapons. We used public records and open source analysis to identify Edgar Vazquez and Michael Sveum, alongside some other members of their tactical team. Read more:

1/ BREAKING: Government documents reviewed by ProPublica identify Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, as the two who fired their weapons during the deadly encounter with Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

EXCLUSIVE: These Patches Are Clues to Identifying Immigration Agents We built a guide to patches worn by ICE and CBP to help the public determine which federal agents are in their communities theintercept.com/2026/01/28/i...

There were witnesses. And victim accounts. One man was stripped of his certification for "criminal conduct" and "inappropriate sexual conduct while on duty." But it wasn't enough to charge 2 Idaho prison guards accused of sexually abusing multiple women. www.investigatewest.org/two-idaho-pr...

for the weekend crowd: I dug into a new podcast that pins a bunch of notorious murders on a long-dead Jewish man from San Diego. It's the ugliest true crime property in recent memory. [gift link] defector.com/michael-conn...

The need for law enforcement transparency & accountability has never been clearer – especially as ICE wreaks havoc on communities. But police misconduct has always been hard to track, penalize, and prevent. These resources aim to change that 🧵

Fascinating to see former Utah police chief Ken Wallentine cited here as a use of force “consultant” voicing concerns about ICE tactics. Wallentine spent years writing policies that protect cops who use force for Lexipol, and nearly all of his “consulting” in lawsuits has been on behalf of police.

NEW, by me: Loose Rules Let State Police Hand Out Lax Penalties for Serious Misconduct The agency's disciplinary system is weaker than other large departments in NY. Troopers who committed serious misconduct have been allowed to remain on the job. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...

Here's what I've been working on the past two and a half years: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...

Join our team! The Invisible Institute is hiring an investigative reporter to join our team and work alongside our staff to report on police abuse, state violence, and official secrecy in Chicago and beyond. Apply by Feb. 15th!

Taking a page from local cops in Minnesota:

Thanks to @prisonpolicy.org for featuring @invisible.institute's public police data projects the National Police Index and Civic Police Data Projects in this resource spotlight, in good company with our friends in California, Louisiana, and elsewhere:

We are excited to co-sponsor this event on police accountability in Oakland on January 22 with @ucbids.bsky.social, Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP), Community Law Enforcement Accountability Network, & the National Police Index. hrdag.org/2026/01/13/t...

Shaping narratives when police shoot and kill someone has been a fundamental part of how police and their supporters operate. For example, see this @yanak.bsky.social @samstecklow.bsky.social story about the Chicago Police Department from 2016: chicagoreader.com/news/how-chi...

Police officers move to new departments all the time. What is the responsibility of local agencies to make sure they're not hiring officers accused of misconduct? @samstecklow.bsky.social and I look at the hiring of one officer in Phoenix www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix...

NEW: In 2021, Seattle cop Scotty Bach attended the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, resigned after an investigation found it was "inconclusive" whether or not he committed misconduct there, and sued to prevent his name from being released. In 2022, he was hired by the Phoenix Police Department.

Timothy Loehmann killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a Cleveland park in 2014. Records show Loehmann was recently hired again by not one, but two departments in West Virginia: the Snowshoe Resort Community District and the Gilmer County Sheriff's Office.

Over the past year, a group of activists, former law enforcement officials, and relatives of people who were harmed by police worked to recommend police reforms for Springfield, Illinois. Their new report reflects months of debate and compromise.

New from Kevin Light-Roth: Tim Ballard promoted the use of sting operations to combat sex trafficking until his own sexual misconduct allegations tore his career to shreds. Now, the families of men he helped send to prison are demanding answers: theappeal.org/net-nanny-wa...

new: government contractors are increasingly invoking trade secrets protections to shield products like gunshot detection, dna analysis, and facial recognition from public scrutiny. via max blaisdell + matt chapman

Several Chicago newsrooms spent two months collecting and analyzing evidence of ICE & Border Patrol's use of tear gas and pepper spray in Chicago. They found that agents deployed chemical agents nearly 50 times. Most uses occurred after a judge ordered federal agents to restrict their use.

NEW: Newly released video of a December 2023 incident inside the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center has raised questions about a judge’s decision to acquit one of the officers involved, experts and advocates told Injustice Watch. buff.ly/uM9m0zx

NEWS: ICE agent charged with drunken driving after shift at Broadview detention center. Car crash into a hedgerow. Trump’s Midway Blitz is claimed to be inspired by an undocumented drunk driving death. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/05/i...

Every time #Florida tried to regulate polluters, the polluters bought enough politicians to make the state back off -- hence the rampant contamination of FL waterways. An investigation by the @tampabaytimes.bsky.social that quantifies the damage done. project.tampabay.com/investigatio...

Federal agencies paid $1.5 million to a local nonlethal weapons manufacturer in Chicago for air-powered guns and pepper balls. It also paid $7.3 million to a downtown real estate company to relocate ICE agents leading up to Operation Midway Blitz. blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/23/c...

In the wake of Charlie Kirk's death, a TN sheriff had a 61-yr-old man arrested for posting a meme on Facebook, which the sheriff absurdly construed as a threat. It was pretty clearly bullshit but I dug into the case using FB & public records and now it looks even worse. My latest @theintercept.com:

Learn about using police employment and misconduct data housed in the National Police Index and Police Records Access Project, two new databases for use by journalists, attorneys, researchers, and members of the public. We'll be presenting at @ire.org's AccessFest this weekend.

The first episode of the Things That Go Boom podcast's new season is here. @tkbarnes.bsky.social does a deep dive into the Utah desert, where Northrop Grumman is building the next generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles with the help of massive state subsidies.

Learn about using police employment and misconduct data housed in the National Police Index and Police Records Access Project, two new databases for use by journalists, attorneys, researchers, and members of the public. We'll be presenting at @ire.org's AccessFest this weekend.

As @invisible.institute + @mindsitenews.bsky.social reported earlier this year, involuntary commitment is an increasingly popular response to mental health crises and homelessness across the U.S. — including in some Democratic-led cities, like Chicago, that are quieter in their advocacy for it.

NEW: In the weeks leading up to a massive ICE raid at a South Shore apartment building, neighbors saw drones surveilling the area, and teachers at a nearby school regularly saw agents in the neighborhood. ✍️ Jose Abonce for the Weekly and Maira Khwaja for @invisible.institute

New from 404 Media: Apple just removed ICEBlock, the app for reporting sightings of ICE, from its App Store after DOJ pressure. ICEBlock's developer tells me "we are determined to fight this." "Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move." www.404media.co/iceblock-own...

NEW — An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in an overnight raid in South Shore, a predominantly-Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. A couple who live nearby said they were shocked to see the enormous militarized raid in their community. thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...

NEW from @injusticewatch.org and @boltsmag.org: Cook County has more documented wrongful convictions than any county in the nation. In the last 10 months, State’s Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke has weakened her office’s main system for freeing innocent people. buff.ly/ysPtaYG

NEW: After @invisible.institute published MN police data, the board that released the data was sued under claims that 257 undercover officers had been exposed. Today, a review by II + @sahanjournal.bsky.social finds that all but 3 had info online IDing them as police—before the release of our data.

NEW — Video posted to social media shows Unraveled Press co-founder Steve Held being detained by federal agents outside the Broadview immigration facility earlier this evening. A collection of Chicago newsrooms is calling for his immediate release. thetriibe.com/2025/09/chic...