Grantees’ Police Accountability Project a Finalist for Bar Association Award

The Pulitzer Center-supported project Roadblocks to Police Accountability, in collaboration with Gateway Journalism Review, is among 29 finalists for the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts. The project is nominated in the "Magazines" category.

The Silver Gavel Awards recognize “outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system,” according to an awards news release.

The ABA Gavel Awards Screening Committee is a group of 50 professionals with legal and media expertise, including lawyer-members of the ABA. The entries include books, commentaries, documentaries, drama and literature, magazines, multimedia, newspapers, radio, and television. Of 176 entries, 29 were finalists for the awards. Winners will be announced on May 18, 2022.

In the project, Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Adviser William H. Freivogel led a team of young reporters centered on exploring the growing calls for police reform around the nation and the handling of disciplinary action within police departments.

The ABA Silver Gavel Awards press release specifically highlights reporting from the project by grantees Kallie Cox and Orli Sheffey. Cox’s stories for Gateway Journalism Review looked at what was learned from accessing police misconduct records, and the possibility of a new law that could withhold that information even further. Sheffey’s reporting looked at what Missouri media was missing when covering an upcoming law enforcement bill, and concealed police misconduct records.