Sam Stecklow
journalist & FOIA fellow @invisible.institute
indie local news cheerleader
if you were really smart, you’d know what to do
orlando
he/him
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW: 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.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW: 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:
- Reposted by Sam Stecklow1/ 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.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowEXCLUSIVE: 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowThere 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...
- Reposted by Sam Stecklowfor 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowThe 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.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW, 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowHere's what I've been working on the past two and a half years: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowJoin 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:
- NEW! ICE seems to have taken to complaining about "doxing" any time an officer is publicly named. Meanwhile, like everyone else, people who work for ICE are on LinkedIn. Make it make sense!!: www.wired.com/story/ice-ag...
- 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:
- Reposted by Sam StecklowWe 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowShaping 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowPolice 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.
- In the first of three stories, @yanak.bsky.social and I report on how self-imposed pressures on the Phoenix PD pushed officials to hire increasing amounts of "lateral transfer" officers from other departments — or other states. @invisible.institute + @theappeal.org + @phoenixnewtimes.com
- Reposted by Sam StecklowTimothy 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.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowOver 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.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNew 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...
- Reposted by Sam Stecklownew: 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
- Reposted by Sam StecklowSeveral 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.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW: 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
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEWS: 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowEvery 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowFederal 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowIn 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:
- Reposted by Sam StecklowThe 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.
- Register here:
- 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.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW: 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
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNew 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW — 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...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW 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
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW — 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...
- Reposted by Sam Stecklow
- Reposted by Sam Stecklow"All but three of the 257 officers claiming to be working undercover had information available online linking their given name with being a #police officer in Minnesota before the release of the POST data". sahanjournal.com/news-partner...
- 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.
- The lawsuit threatens public access to data on all officers in Minnesota — not just undercover — as well as potentially makes more disciplinary records at the state level secret. The data was sought for Invisible Institute's National Police Index to provide access to data on "wandering cops."
- This story has been cited in a brief today filed on behalf of a coalition of news media organizations — including @invisible.institute, @startribune.com, @mprnews.org, @axios.com, & @propublica.org. Read the full brief, and selected other filings, here: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowUndercover Minnesota officers suing oversight board to block release have public LinkedIns, discipline and shootings, @samstecklow.bsky.social reports sahanjournal.com/news-partner...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowToday marks the one year anniversary since HRDAG and our partners at @invisible.institute , Innocence & Justice Louisiana, and Machine Learning Justice Lab launched the National Police Index, a project to shed light on police employment history data. www.nprillinois.org/news/2024-10...
- A good story on Missouri’s broken police decertification system. Last year, I wrote a related story about how the state POST refuses to release data showing the employment histories of officers in the state — preventing a full analysis of the “municipal shuffle” of officers in St. Louis Metro:
- Reposted by Sam StecklowPolice secrecy bill would shield undercover California officers in misconduct cases
- Reposted by Sam StecklowJournalist Mario Guevara has now been detained for almost 100 days after he was arrested while covering a protest, despite judge granting him bond and family trying to pay it: "Moved from jail to jail to jail to jail to jail" apnews.com/article/jour...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowMy first article as part of The Times' Local Investigations Fellowship: In New York, Some Police Officers Can Drink, Drive and Avoid Charges www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/u...
- Reposted by Sam Stecklow"The city of Chicago on Thursday announced a roughly $90 million “global settlement” to resolve 176 lawsuits tied to disgraced former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who ran a corrupt public housing unit and went to federal prison for shaking down an FBI informant."
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNew @michellepitcher.bsky.social: Efforts to limit police transparency by shielding some complaints from public view have failed multiple times during the 2025 legislative season—most recently in the form of House Bill 15, which died this week.
- NEW: Politicians of both parties are pushing to expand forced hospitalization. In many cases, cops w/ minimal training fill out forms attesting that people are a danger to themselves or others. In Chicago, police forcibly hospitalize 6 people a day. It's how over 20% of CPD mental health calls end.
- A new investigation from @invisible.institute + @mindsitenews.bsky.social + @southsideweekly.bsky.social digs into CPD's use of forced hospitalization — possible only because the 2019 consent decree forced CPD to begin collecting data on this question. No state or national body tracks this data.
- The CPD's CARE team were intended to respond to many mental health calls in the city. But as @mindsitenews.bsky.social has reported, limited funding and inter-department turf battles have significantly hampered the alternative response program's capacity.
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View full threadAnd read the full series that this reporting is part of: a special issue between @mindsitenews.bsky.social, @southsideweekly.bsky.social, @invisible.institute, and Medill Investigative Lab-Chicago.
- Reposted by Sam Stecklow“The first thing we deserve is an explanation from COPA about why they’re changing their mind in these cases,” Block says. “If there was some serious flaw in COPA’s initial investigation or recommendation, that should be explained.”
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW: In what appears to be one of the largest expansions of surveillance in IL history, we found hundreds of new Flock license plate readers—all paid for by AG Kwame Raoul's office in the last 3 years. Issues with Flock Safety's data sharing practices are mounting. Will our sanctuary status hold?
- Reposted by Sam StecklowSince 2020, New Jersey has provided greater transparency involving police who use force and the major discipline actions taken against police. But tracking the number of fatal shootings by law enforcement officers remains difficult.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowThe Adams County Sheriff has been cooperating with ICE, despite Illinois' sanctuary laws prohibiting so. As a result, at least two men have been deported. news.wttw.com/2025/08/15/a...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowAfter years of legal battles, the city of Seattle has disclosed the names of all its police officers who attended President Donald Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowMy latest investigation! A story about some wild things that happened at a UIC forensics lab and how inadequate crime lab oversight is in our state. In the course of reporting I: -filed 45+ FOIA requests -did 100+ interviews -reviewed 8000+ pages of records www.injusticewatch.org/project/fore...
- Reposted by Sam StecklowNEW: A Palos Heights cop has been disciplined after sharing his password to a vast license plate reader database with the feds. A DEA agent used Detective Todd Hutchinson's login for 24 immigration related searches in late January. We've obtained a memo from PHPD along with chat screenshots:
- Reposted by Sam Stecklow“This is the most massive secrecy grab in Texas since the adoption of the Public Information Act.” New today from @michellepitcher.bsky.social: A move to "standardize" police personnel files could have devastating consequences for transparency.
- Reposted by Sam StecklowFour Al Jazeera staff, including reporter Anas Al Sharif, were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists outside the main gate of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital aje.io/onll19
- Reposted by Sam StecklowThe Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Amir Locke — and, until recently, led MPD’s use-of-force training — is not the only trainer whose record has raised concerns over the department’s commitment to changing its culture.
