Police coverage earns Riverdalian top award

When Eric Garner died after a police officer put him in a chokehold on Staten Island in July 2014, it was a challenge for news organizations to report and explain the incident. But veteran journalist and Riverdale resident David L. Lewis, the metropolitan desk editor at WNYC, had a unique resource at his disposal: a database of public records that the radio station had obtained that held court records and arrest data for the NYPD.

“When the Eric Garner case happened, we figured out how to use the database to look at the practices and processes of the NYPD that illuminate how this case came to be,” he said.

This month, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism announced that WNYC won the school’s prestigious Alfred I. duPont Award for the series that came out of that reporting, called “NYPD Bruised.” The series revealed patterns among the minority of New York City police officers who have received multiple complaints from civilians.

“[‘NYPD Bruised’] is fair, balanced, sharp and complete — original and valuable,” read the announcement of the award, which is viewed as the broadcasting and digital equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize, also given by Columbia.

Early on in the series, the reporting team took a close look at Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who put Mr. Garner in the chokehold that led to his death. Police were attempting to arrest Mr. Garner for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes.

Mr. Lewis said his team used its database to look up the 259 criminal cases where Officer Pantaleo appeared as the arresting officer over his career. They found that the vast majority of these cases were misdemeanor crimes, and that two-thirds were either dismissed or the defendant pled guilty to disorderly conduct.

That led the reporting team to call Officer Pantaleo “the face of broken windows,” referring to the policing tactic of cracking down on small crimes.

Mr. Lewis recalled searching for a way to bring the human element out of the data-driven story as Officer Pantaleo ignored WNYC’s interview requests.

“I want to hear the voice of someone arrested by Pantaleo telling us what the experience was like as a suspect,” Mr. Lewis said he told his reporter, Robert Lewis. (The men are not related.)