Photos by Loren Holmes for the Anchorage Daily News

What happens when communities lack law enforcement?

For many of us, this may seem like a theoretical question. But through reporting based on hundreds of public records requests and interviews, Anchorage Daily News Special Projects Editor Kyle Hopkins found that one in three Alaskan communities have no law enforcement of any kind.

CU News Corps Director and lead judge Chuck Plunkett calls the investigation “a vast and breathtaking series of reports that revealed in vivid detail how Alaska’s indigenous populations are systematically denied basic public safety services.”

In a letter to this year’s judges, Daily News Editor David Hulen and ProPublica Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg wrote that Hopkins went to extraordinary lengths to capture the stark realities of everyday life in these communities. 

“Reporter Kyle Hopkins traveled to villages where it is up to the residents to tackle active shooters and restrain them with duct tape, where generations of children were sexually abused by Jesuit priests, and where abusive husbands hide from visiting troopers with impunity,” they wrote.

In addition to communities who have no law enforcement, many others are served by unarmed village officials who receive no benefits, low pay and hardly any training, such as a 49-year-old grandmother who is the sole police officer for an Arctic Circle village of 421 citizens. 

Meanwhile, well-trained and well-paid members of the Alaska State Troopers, an agency created to patrol hard-to-reach areas, instead protect mostly white suburbs surrounding road-system cities like Wasilla. According to Hopkins’ reporting, this is because residents in these highly populated regions––home to both current Gov. Mike Dunleavy and former Gov. Sarah Palin––refuse to pay taxes for local law enforcement while rural areas pay the price.

The series “was the first comprehensive investigation to lay bare Alaska’s failing, two-tiered criminal justice system,” Hulen and Engelberg noted. “Within weeks of publishing our first story, U.S. Attorney General William Barr declared a federal emergency, releasing millions of dollars in law enforcement funding for rural Alaska. Subsequent stories led to a state regulatory crackdown and calls for reform from the state’s U.S. senators.”

Another standout in this year’s competition is the series by Baltimore Sun Reporter Justin Fenton. 

The series exposed a culture of corruption within the Baltimore Police Department’s elite Gun Trace Task Force that allowed officers to steal money and drugs from those they were to police, in order to operate a crime ring of their own. 

In addition, the judges give special mention to a collaboration with Marquette University’s Public Service Journalism O’Brien Fellowship and theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel that produced the series, Through both a podcast and written series, Journal Sentinel Criminal Justice Reporter Gina Barton investigated the cold case of Father Alfred Kunz, who was murdered in a rural Wisconsin town in 1998. 

“Like the ProPublica assistance, such partnerships, similar to the one that produced last year’s Nakkula winner, help illustrate how outside groups with a desire to help local journalists play an increasingly important role in doing important work for local communities during these challenging times for local newsrooms,” Plunkett says. 

In addition to Plunkett, this year’s judges included Colorado Springs Gazette Senior Investigative Reporter Christopher N. Osher, Colorado Public Radio Reporter Hayley Sanchez, Denver Post Editorial Page Editor Megan Schrader and Colorado Sun Reporter Kevin Simpson.

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Eight months after publishing a special section decrying massive layoffs at The Denver Post and criticizing its owners for losing sight of the paper’s mission, former editorial page editor Chuck Plunkett will be honored by the National Press Club Nov. 29 for igniting a national dialogue about the fate of local journalism.

“Chuck Plunkett’s decision to publish a newspaper that called out its owners for mismanaging that paper was a remarkable act of courage,” said Andrea Edney, president of the organization, which will award Plunkett its John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award at the Fourth Estate Dinner in Washington, D.C. “That special section gave voice to papers all around the country that have seen their ranks thinned. It was a clarion call to save local journalism.”

Plunkett resigned from The Denver Post shortly after publishing the April 6 package, when the paper tried to block another editorial criticizing owner Alden Global Capital. He now directs , a student-produced investigative journalism program at the College of Media Communication and Information.

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Chuck Plunkett

Photo by Glenn Asakawa (Jour'86)

Former Denver Post editorial page editor Chuck Plunkett will join the �鶹ӰԺ this fall as director of CU News Corps, a program of the College of Media, Communication and Information.

He has more than 20 years of experience in state and regional newsrooms in investigative reporting, politics, public policy and breaking news, including as part of the newsroom team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for breaking news coverage of the Aurora theater shooting

Plunkett was The Denver Post’s lead writer covering Denver’s preparation for and hosting of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He was editorial page editor of The Denver Post until he resigned in April.

"Chuck Plunkett is known as a Colorado thought leader and champion for journalistic excellence and tackling difficult issues,” said CMCI Dean Lori Bergen. “His years as a writer and editor in newsrooms and on editorial boards bring the depth of experience needed to mentor our students as they partner with professional news organizations on a range of issues."

As director of CU News Corps, Plunkett will be the primary coordinator for the investigative news outlet, which provides package-driven, long-form journalism to several of Colorado’s top professional media organizations. Students enroll in the course for credit and report on key Colorado issues, with previous topics including crime, immigration and political fact checking.

“Chuck had just the right character to be the conscience of our community as he brought out diverse viewpoints on all the issues of our time,” said Dean Singleton, who owned The Denver Post from 1987 to 2013. “CU students will be incredibly lucky to have access to his vast experience and knowledge as they prepare for an exciting future in covering news.”

CU News Corps is supported by Bill and Kathy Scripps, who established a $2.5 million endowment in 2017. The program began in 2012 as a small team of students reporting on breaking news and partnering with local media.

Starting in the fall, the CU News Corps course will serve as the required capstone course for all entering journalism students. It will eventually enroll 60 to 70 students per semester.

In 2014, Plunkett created and taught a pilot program at the University of Denver called “Fact Lab” that worked with upper-level students to fact check political messaging in campaign ads for the 2014 election season. The Denver Post published the students’ work on its politics blog, The Spot, and excerpts in its paper editions.

“I loved working in newsrooms, and I didn't want to leave them. But it is also true that, before I started my career in journalism, I hoped to find myself teaching in university classrooms. Over the years I've often thought longingly about returning to the academy and its mission. The CU News Corps program offers incredible opportunities to help train the next generation of journalists and maintain that connection to the profession that has defined my adult life.” —Chuck Plunkett

Plunkett has a master’s in fine arts in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s in English from the University of Arkansas.

The College of Media, Communication and Information opened in the fall of 2015 with six academic departments, including the Department of Communication and programs of the former School of Journalism. The first new college on campus in more than 50 years, CMCI takes an interdisciplinary approach to media, communication and information education that is enriched by data and immersive technologies.

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