PRINT/ONLINE JOURNALISM—SHORTFORM
“Miami Gardens Police Records Reveal Broad Policy of Stopping and Questioning Citizens”
Fusion
Alice Brennan and Dan Lieberman
PRINT/ONLINE JOURNALISM—SHORTFORM
“Miami Gardens Police Records Reveal Broad Policy of Stopping and Questioning Citizens”
Fusion
Alice Brennan and Dan Lieberman
An investigation by Fusion Media Network has found that an 11-year-old boy, who was questioned on his way to football practice and labeled a “suspicious person” after police claimed his “gray sweatpants, red hoodie, and black gloves” gave them just cause to stop him, was just one of 56,922 people who were stopped and questioned by the Miami Gardens Police Department (MGPD) between 2008 and 2013. That’s the equivalent of more than half of the city’s population. Not one of the people stopped was arrested. The city’s “stop and frisk” policy has caused citizens of Miami Gardens to be questioned by police at a rate that may be the highest in the nation.
This report garnered its authors, Alice Brennan and Dan Lieberman, the 2015 Media for a Just Society Award in the shortform print/online journalism category. Their coverage exposed the city’s policies as “New York City stop-and-frisk on steroids,” according to Miami-Dade County Public Defender Carlos Martinez. He describes the police department as treating every citizen in the city as a suspect.
Read the article and learn more about the authors here. Follow the authors on Twitter @alicitabrennan and @danliebs.
Watch Fusion’s video on zero-tolerance policies, which ensnare thousands of young people in the criminal justice system, below.
Information adapted from fusion.net