THE NEWS WINS!
NYPD EXPOSÉ HAILED AS PUBLIC SERVICE
AN INVESTIGATION into the systemic abuse of an obscure civil enforcement law that ousted shop owners from their businesses and residents from their homes has won the Daily News its 11th Pulitzer Prize.
The News partnered with ProPublica, a web-based nonprofit, in winning the coveted award in the public service journalism category on Monday.
Daily News reporter Sarah Ryley took home the most prestigious award in journalism for her in-depth look at the NYPD’s use of the nuisance abatement law to close properties where it says crimes have been committed.
The series detailed how the Police Department booted owners from their businesses and residents from their homes before they had the opportunity to make their cases in court.
The joint investigation humanized the overreach by detailing individual cases and analyzing more than 1,100 nuisance abatement cases. Ninety percent of businesses and homes targeted were in majority-minority neighborhoods.
“I just think it’s so amazing to have been part of the work that could bring the Daily News such an important and well-deserved honor,” Ryley said Monday. “The nuisance abatement series was one of many projects that I worked on during my nearly five years here, and one of many, many stories that the Daily News does day in and day out that really fight for the interest of everyday New Yorkers.”
The nuisance abatement law was enacted in the 1970s to combat prostitution in Times Square.
But The News and ProPublica found the decades-old law was being used to boot residents from their homes and owners from their businesses over flimsy allegations.
A 90-year-old woman was fighting to remain in her Queens home after cops said her adult son sold them heroin. A laundromat owner in Manhattan was threatened with closure after an undercover officer sold “stolen” electronics to people inside his business on two occasions, unbeknown to him, The News found.
Other business owners stood to lose everything over alleged underage liquor sales, which sometimes didn’t even generate an arrest, let alone a conviction.
“The investigation into workings of the nuisance abatement law is a stellar example of the media fulfilling its duty to monitor fairness in the legal system,” Daily News Editor-in-Chief Arthur Browne said. “Designed as a tool for closing establishments rife with criminality, the statute vests police and other the officials with extraordinary powers — powers they misapplied against regular citizens without check by an effective judiciary. “Thanks to this investigation, New York now sees how an extremely muscular law, combined with aggressive policing, combined with a lack of counsel, combined with lax judges, produced damaging miscarriages of justice.” The News and ProPublica analyzed more than 1,100 cases filed over an 18-month period, exposing startling abuses of power. “This Pulitzer Prize awarded today to the Daily News and ProPublica is not only high recognition of the tenacity and talent of Sarah Ryley, but also a reflection of the importance of collaboration in today’s competitive news environment, as well as the firstrate editorial leadership here at the newspaper and the high quality of journalism that the entire editorial team produces every day for our readers,” Daily News Co-Chairman and Co-Publisher Eric J. Gertler (photo) said.
After the investigation was published, the NYPD imposed new safeguards in the process of locking residents out of their homes and the overall use of the civil actions dropped significantly.
In February, the City Council passed 13 bills that would add sweeping reforms to the law.
“It was a tremendous undertaking with impressive results,” said Robert F. Moore, head of news at The News. “Following a long tradition of aggressive journalism, the Daily News gets action.”