Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting-old

The award, sponsored by the Journalism department at the College of Media, Communication and Information and the Denver Press Club, honors the late Al Nakkula, a 46-year veteran of the Rocky Mountain News whose tenacity made him a legendary police reporter.  

The award is for work produced by a reporter or reporting team in print and/or online platforms in the United States in 2016. Entries should take the form of a story or series about one topic and/or event. Sorry, this award is not for broadcast work.

The first-place prize is $2,000. The winner will be invited to speak to classes at the University of Colorado College of Media, Communication and Information and to accept the award at the Denver Press Club's Damon Runyon dinner on March 31, 2017. The second-place finisher will receive a certificate of merit. 

2016 Winners
The winners of the 2016 Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting are Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project and T. Christian Miller of ProPublica. They won for their story, "An Unbelievable Story of Rape," jointly published on Dec. 15, 2015. The story is a compelling narrative that details how dogged police work by investigators in Colorado captured a serial rapist and led to the exoneration of a Washington woman who had been wrongfully prosecuted for false reporting of a rape that actually happened. Read more »