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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow
@samstecklow.bsky.social
1.1K followers 560 following 150 posts
journalist & FOIA fellow @invisible.institute indie local news cheerleader if you were really smart, you’d know what to do orlando he/him
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 15d
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.
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is suing the Minnesota POST forreleasing the names of undercover police officers to media outlets, but many have already been publiclyidentified.
sahanjournal.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
inkstickmedia.com
Inkstick Media @inkstickmedia.com · 18d
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.
Big Promises, Small Print
We examine how the war machine hides in plain sight. And we follow the reporters and local watchdogs still trying to uncover the truth.
inkstickmedia.com
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 2d
ty jasmine!
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 2d
Register here:
AccessFest25 Registration - Investigative Reporters & Editors
IRE's virtual conference, AccessFest, is October 9-11, 2025. Join us for training and learn how to be a better watchdog journalist!
www.ire.org
samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 2d
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.
Session card for an IRE AccessFest panel on "Utilizing new police misconduct and employment databases"
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 2d
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.
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
southsideweekly.bsky.social
South Side Weekly @southsideweekly.bsky.social · 3d
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
Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children
Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.
southsideweekly.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
josephcox.bsky.social
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 7d
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...
ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’
Apple removed ICEBlock reportedly after direct pressure from Department of Justice officials. “I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never t...
www.404media.co
66 580 1.3K
Reposted by Sam Stecklow
thetriibe.com
The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 9d
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...
Feds detain dozens of immigrants in 'massive' South Shore apartment building raid in Chicago • The TRiiBE
An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in the course of the overnight raid in the predominately-Black neighborhood.
thetriibe.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
injusticewatch.org
Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 10d
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
Cook County’s new prosecutor has weakened an already broken system for freeing the innocent
State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s Conviction Integrity Unit hasn’t exonerated anyone in her 10 months on the job, and she has done little to confront more than a dozen coercion allegations…
www.injusticewatch.org
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 15d
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.
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is suing the Minnesota POST forreleasing the names of undercover police officers to media outlets, but many have already been publiclyidentified.
sahanjournal.com
1 4 8
Reposted by Sam Stecklow
thetriibe.com
The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 12d
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...
Chicago journalist detained while covering protest outside Broadview immigration facility • The TRiiBE
Video posted to social media shows Unraveled Press co-founder Steve Held being detained by federal agents earlier this evening.
thetriibe.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
jonahshai.bsky.social
Jonah Newman @jonahshai.bsky.social · 12d
Federal agents detained Chicago journalist Steve Held, of Unraveled Press, on the evening of Saturday, September 27, outside Broadview Detention Facility while he reported on the ongoing protests. We urge for his immediate release. Signed by 10 local nonprofit newsrooms.
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
twrling.bsky.social
Tracy Rosenberg @twrling.bsky.social · 13d
"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...
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is suing the Minnesota POST forreleasing the names of undercover police officers to media outlets, but many have already been publiclyidentified.
sahanjournal.com
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 14d
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...
According to a review by the Invisible Institute, one of the members of the Coalition, “all but three” of the officers that were designated as undercover “had information online linking their given name with being a police officer in Minnesota before the release” of the POST Board data. Sam Stecklow, Undercover Minnesota cops suing oversight board have public LinkedIns, discipline and shootings, Sahan Journal (Sept. 24, 2025), https://sahanjournal.com/news-partners/undercover-minnesota-police-officers-post-board-mppo-lawsuit. In other words, for the more than 200 other “undercover” officers, their employment as a police officer was already public in court records, press releases, news articles social media posts, or even their own LinkedIn profiles. Id. The examples are striking. The POST Board data at issue in this case supposedly identified an “undercover” officer who was involved in a killing while responding to a mental health crisis call in 2019. Id. But that officer’s LinkedIn profile acknowledges that he was a police officer, as do numerous articles detailing the killing. Id. That list also included an “undercover” officer who, according to a state website, is a high-ranking special agent within the Department of Public Safety; an “undercover” officer who signed his name and position to a public letter supporting the nomination of a federal judge; and an “undercover” officer who appears on public webpages as leading training sessions for an undercover drug investigation program. Id. None of this information could possibly be considered “private.” The District Court’s characterization of the data is especially concerning because, as the Invisible Institute’s analysis demonstrates, “undercover” designations may be outdated or unreliable. The MGDPA includes no definition or requirements for what qualifies as an “undercover assignment” for the purposes of Minn. Stat. § 13.43, subd. 5. There is also no oversight of decisions to designate officers as “undercover,” in terms of time, scope of the work, or third-party review of that designation. Once the “undercover” designation does attach, all data regarding the officer that would otherwise be public under Minn. Stat. § 13.43, subds. 2 and 3, becomes private data. Agencies, therefore, could misuse the designation to hide bad actors from public scrutiny or to prevent outside oversight of a police department. For example, nothing in the MGDPA prevents an agency from assigning an entire police department as “undercover.” The District Court’s decision, therefore, sweeps far too broad in the data it purportedly protects.
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
morisy.bsky.social
Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 15d
Undercover Minnesota officers suing oversight board to block release have public LinkedIns, discipline and shootings, @samstecklow.bsky.social reports
sahanjournal.com/news-partner...
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is suing the Minnesota POST forreleasing the names of undercover police officers to media outlets, but many have already been publiclyidentified.
sahanjournal.com
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 15d
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."
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is suing the Minnesota POST forreleasing the names of undercover police officers to media outlets, but many have already been publiclyidentified.
sahanjournal.com
1 4
samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 15d
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.
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is suing the Minnesota POST forreleasing the names of undercover police officers to media outlets, but many have already been publiclyidentified.
sahanjournal.com
1 4 8
Reposted by Sam Stecklow
hrdag.org
Human Rights Data Analysis Group @hrdag.org · 21d
Today 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...
Want to know a police officer’s job history? There’s a new tool
The Invisible Institute helped create the site. Users can select a state, then search an officer’s name, agency or unique identifier number.
www.nprillinois.org
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · 20d
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:
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
latimes.com
Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 28d
Police secrecy bill would shield undercover California officers in misconduct cases
Police secrecy bill would shield undercover California officers in misconduct cases
Press advocates and police watchdogs said a proposal under consideration in Sacramento would gut transparency reforms passed in recent years.
www.latimes.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
morisy.bsky.social
Michael Morisy @morisy.bsky.social · 28d
Journalist 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...
Spanish-language journalist remains in ICE custody despite being granted bond
A Spanish-language journalist remains in federal custody despite being granted bond by an immigration judge last week.
apnews.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
sammysussman.bsky.social
Sammy Sussman @sammysussman.bsky.social · Sep 9
My 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...
In New York, Some Police Officers Can Drink, Drive and Avoid Charges
www.nytimes.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
mulchy.bsky.social
shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 28d
"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."
City Hall settling 176 lawsuits tied to corrupt Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts for $90 million
Lawsuits targeting Watts, who ran a corrupt public housing unit and was sent to federal prison for shaking down an FBI informant, have long placed a financial strain on the city.
chicago.suntimes.com
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Reposted by Sam Stecklow
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · Sep 5
New @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.
Police ‘Secrecy Grab’ Dies After Senate Refuses Uvalde Compromise
"We’re hopeful that it means it doesn’t come back again, and that we can preserve some level of transparency for all Texans."
www.texasobserver.org
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samstecklow.bsky.social
Sam Stecklow @samstecklow.bsky.social · Sep 2
yes - aside from some de-escalation tactics, a lot of their training materials involve how to fill out an involuntary hospitalization petition
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