Project on DUI Checkpoints Launches in The New York Times, PBS NewsHour and newspapers across California

Photo: Marlena Telvick

The Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at the Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, announces the publication of a major investigation by one of our 2009-2010 IRP Fellows.

Ryan Gabrielson has examined how police DUI checkpoints have become a moneymaker for Californian cities at the expense of undocumented immigrants.

This multi-media, multi-outlet project launched on Sunday, February 14, 2010, with a print story in The New York Times and an accompanying video “Police Checkpoints: Safety or Profit?” on the Times website. The Center for Investigative Reporting’s “California Watch” edited versions of the story for the Sacramento Bee, the Orange County Register, Mother Jones, the Bakersfield Californian, the Stockton Record, Alternet, New America Media and in Spanish for La Opinion.

The PBS NewsHour aired the broadcast version of Gabrielson’s investigation, “DUI Checkpoints Meet Rising Skepticism” produced by the IRP in collaboration with The New York Times on Monday, February 15, 2010. It was shot by J-School alum and 2009-2010 IRP Fellow Zachary Stauffer (MJ ’08) and narrated by Logan Professor Lowell Bergman. Dan Hirst was the producer and Stephanie Challberg edited the story. KQED Radio’s “The California Report” aired an interview with Mr. Gabrielson that same day.

Three graduate students contributed reporting, fact checking and translations to Gabrielson’s investigation: Madeleine Bair (’10), Linsay Rousseau Burnett (’10) and Karen Weise (’10).

Ryan Gabrielson comes to UC Berkeley from the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Arizona where he won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. He began his yearlong Fellowship in September 2009.

Click here to read the story in the New York Times.

Click here to see the story in California Watch.

Click here to read an interview with Ryan Gabrielson in the California Report.

About the Investigative Reporting Program

The Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, established permanently in 2006, formalizes work begun in 1992 in the seminars taught by Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter and documentarian Lowell Bergman. In addition to participating in graduate seminars dedicated to teaching investigative tools and techniques, the faculty, staff and students work together on local, national and international stories for broadcast, print and the Web.

Funded by private grants and gifts, the program is dedicated to promoting in-depth reporting in the public interest. This commitment includes nurturing and guiding a new generation of investigative reporters.

In 2007, the Investigative Reporting Program established the first postgraduate fellowships in investigative reporting in the nation for promising journalists. This yearlong program is without peer at any academic institution in the country. It is designed to nurture journalists who want to pursue in-depth public service reporting by providing them with a salary, benefits and editorial guidance. The annual competition is open to all working journalists, but preference is given to graduates of UC Berkeley’s master’s program in journalism.

The 2009-2010 Fellowships were funded by the Sandler Foundation, with matching gifts from Scott and Jennifer Fearon, the Gruber Family Foundation, Steve Silberstein, John Keker, the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund, the Pearson Foundation (Financial Times/The Economist, UK)  and Peter Wiley. Production and editorial facilities funded in part by the Reva and David Logan Foundation. The IRP Fellowships are run by investigative reporter Marlena Telvick, deputy director of the IRP.

For more details, contact:

Investigative Reporting Program
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
2481 Hearst Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709
marlenatelvick@berkeley.edu