2017: Investigative Journalism

In the spring and summer of 2015, CU News Corps students worked on a documentary film titled “Taking the Lede.” The 45-minute film tells the stories of Colorado high school journalists who have covered difficult stories during times of crisis; who have done ground-breaking investigative work that brought the Pentagon’s...

Last January, the Denver Police Department re-drafted its use-of-force policy in an attempt to better meet community standards for policing. Unfortunately, the department’s efforts fell short of the public’s expectations on several levels. Courtesy photo Perhaps the biggest issue was the complaint by groups who said they felt left out...

This piece is the opinion of its author Soul Ashemu wants the Denver Police to stop murdering black youth in his community. Stock image The CEO of Soul Progressive, a Denver-based movement rooted in progressive politics, took to Facebook Live on May 4 to publically condemn a basketball game that...

One October morning in 2016, Brandon Simmons walked up to the Champions Center on the University of Colorado Boulder campus wielding a 31-inch machete. Stock image He approached the building and scribbled a bevy of words on car windows—”murder,” “disrespect,” “cursing thy father’s name,” “judgment,” The Boulder Daily Camera reported...

This piece is the opinion of its author, an attorney and a journalist It is extremely rare for Colorado law enforcement to be charged with a crime after shooting people in the line of duty. Colorado's Supreme Court Building On June 23, 2016, a jury convicted former Rocky Ford police...

Why is it so hard to get police records in Colorado? On the night of January 15, 2015, Aurora Police Department officers shot and killed Kavonda Payton. Denver police on patrol downtown during 2008 Democratic National Convention. Local news reports from the Denver Post and 7News covered the shooting the...

Note: This story was produced for The Denver Post and for Public News Service, and ran in the Post’s newspaper on March 5, 2017. Nearly 40 PNS stations ran an audio version of the story, and it also ran on the PNS website . Stock image The number of officer-involved...

CU News Corps has mapped every officer-involved shooting reported by the City of Denver from 2015 to now.