Selden Ring Award goes to alums Rusch and Smith who — with the IRP and SF Chronicle — expose system for concealing police misconduct

Katey Rusch and Casey Smith

“Right to Remain Secret” — a two-part story about a secret system that has concealed misconduct by California law enforcement officers for decades — by UC Berkeley Journalism alums Katey Rusch (’20) and Casey Smith (’20) and published in the San Francisco Chronicle, has won the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism announced today.

“This story took intrepid reporting to break through a system of silence and opacity that intentionally prevents accountability for police misconduct in California,” said Investigative Reporting Program Chair David Barstow, who has worked with the reporters since the investigation’s inception in 2019. “We applaud our partners at the San Francisco Chronicle for the courage to hold power to account in publishing this investigation.”

The Selden Ring Award, which comes with a $50,000 prize, is a partnership between USC Annenberg and the Ring Foundation and has been awarded since 1989. Considered one of the world’s most prestigious journalism awards, the Selden Ring “underscores the importance of investigative journalism as a cornerstone of democratic society — and the value of accountability for governments, non-government organizations and private corporations.”

Rusch and Smith, who conceived of and reported the story with IRP support, are the first to expose and explain how so-called “clean-record agreements,” obscure police misconduct — including dishonesty, sexual assault and excessive force — and enable errant officers to start anew in other police agencies and even qualify for disability pensions.

Serginho Roosblad (’18) and Marian Carrasquero (’19).

Alums Serginho Roosblad (’18), video producer for the Associated Press’ Global Investigations team and director of PBS Frontline’s “Documenting Police Use of Force,” and Marian Carrasquero (’19), the film’s associate producer, were part of the Associated Press, Frontline, and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism programs honored with a Selden Ring Special Citation for Lethal Restraint.

Judges said of the investigation: “This three-year investigation exposed and meticulously catalogued fatal encounters by police with the public, a vital and significant undertaking that no government entity had ever done.”

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Read the story about the 2025 Selden Ring Award from USC Annenberg here.
Read a Q&A with Rusch about the series here.
Read a Q&A with Roosblad here.