Register here.

In her 2019 PBS Frontline film, Flint's Deadly Water, award-winning freelance producer/writer/director Abby Ellis and her team uncovered the extent of a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Flint that occurred during the lead contamination crisis in 2014. Their two year investigation involved a rigorous use of public records, including obtaining a large number of death certificates from county officials, medical records, court documents, and exclusive interviews with whistleblowers. At this event, we'll learn how Abby and her team used public records to pursue this story and what roadblocks they had to overcome along the way.

Abby Ellis served as Frontline's 2020 Hollyhock Filmmaker-in-Residence. Flint’s Deadly Water was recognized by the Scripps Howard Foundation with the Jack R. Howard Award for Broadcast and was nominated for an Emmy award, Peabody award, and a finalist for both the IRE awards and Livingston awards.

Register here.

In 2021, investigative reporter (and Gumshoe co-founder) Azmat Khan published The Civilian Casualty Files in The New York Times, a multi-part investigation into the civilian casualties from America’s air wars across the Middle East. With legal support from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Khan obtained more than 1,300 of the military’s own internal reviews into allegations of civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria. The investigation, which was also based on ground reporting at the sites of 100 civilian casualty incidents in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and scores of interviews, revealed how American wars of ‘precision strikes’ were systematically marred by flawed intelligence, faulty targeting and scant accountability. Hear from Azmat and RCFP senior staff attorney Adam Marshall about the investigation and how to obtain public records from the Pentagon.

Register here to attend the event.

Register here.

In a 2021 investigation 'Behind the Blue Wall', USA Today reporter Brett Murphy, along with two colleagues, exposed the extent of law enforcement’s code of silence, an unofficial system in which officers who accuse their colleagues of crimes or misconduct face professional and personal retaliation. The reporters amassed information from dozens of interviews, hundreds of public records requests and thousands of pages of documents, revealing the ways the system rewards officers who participate in coverups and shields leaders from accountability.

At this event, we'll learn how Brett’s team used public records requests to obtain critical evidence in the project, and the challenges the reporters faced along the way.

Brett Murphy is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and 30 under 30 honoree. He’s also been recognized with the Livingston Award, Hillman Prize, National Headliner Award and National Press Foundation Award, among others. Brett co-founded the Local Matters newsletter, a weekly roundup of the best investigative and watchdog reporting from local newsrooms around the country.

Register here.

The Gumshoe Group is excited to announce the next session in our new, monthly series, the Crowbar Chronicles. Each session will feature one reporter who's successfully pursued a Freedom of Information-based investigation while freelancing. We'll hear about how they brought the project from idea to completion. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and will receive tip sheets from the session. Whenever possible, the attorney who helped obtain the records will also join the conversation.  

In April, we'll be hosting investigative reporter Adam Federman and CUNY Law Professor Sarah Lamdan, to discuss FBI and corporate surveillance of climate justice activists,  including by classifying non-violent protesters as potential domestic terrorists. Since 2013, Federman’s reporting has looked at how the fossil fuel industry has worked with law enforcement at the local, state and federal level to target environmental activists, beginning with mass protests against the Keystone Pipeline. In her years as an attorney, Professor Lamdan has developed in an expertise in using records requests to advance the public’s understanding of climate change, marine dredging and other environmental issues, as well as the limits of FOIA in compelling government transparency. You’ll learn about the challenges of using public records requests to uncover the ways in which government and state agencies have spied on, tracked and in some cases infiltrated a non-violent protest movement.  Register here to attend the session with Adam and Sarah on Wednesday, 4/21/21 at 5pm EST.

The Gumshoe Group is excited to announce the launch of our new, monthly series, the Crowbar Chronicles. Each session will feature one reporter who's successfully pursued a Freedom of Information-based investigation while freelancing. We'll hear about how they brought the project from idea to completion. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and will receive tip sheets from the session. Whenever possible, the attorney who helped obtain the records will also join the conversation.

We invite you to attend our inaugural session, featuring journalist and filmmaker Assia Boundaoui, director of the "The Feeling of Being Watched.” The documentary follows Assia as she investigates rumors that the FBI had spied on her Arab-American neighborhood of Bridgewater, Illinois. Assia compelled community members to sign releases for their FBI records, which helped revea the extent to which they’d all been surveilled. She'll be joined by her attorney, Christina Abraham.

“The opposite of surveillance is a two-way gaze,” Assia says in the film. “It’s about making sure the systems of power also feel watched.”

To attend the Crowbar Chronicles event, sign up here.

Our inaugural Crowbar Chronicles session, to be held on Wednesday 3/10, will feature journalist and filmmaker Assia Boundaoui, director of the "The Feeling of Being Watched.” She'll be joined by her attorney, Christina Abraham.

The Gumshoe Group is privileged to be offering a free screening of the film in advance of the event. Please join us on Sunday, March 7 to watch "The Feeling of Being Watched."

To attend the screening, sign up here. (To attend the separate Crowbar Chronicles event, sign up here. )

Trailer & More About The Film Below

"In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where director Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. While investigating their experiences, Assia uncovers tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counterterrorism investigations ever conducted in the U.S. before 9/11, code-named “Operation Vulgar Betrayal.” With unprecedented access, The Feeling of Being Watched weaves the personal and the political as it follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community fell under blanket government surveillance. Assia struggles to disrupt the government secrecy shrouding what happened and takes the FBI to federal court to compel them to make the records they collected about her community public. In the process, she confronts long-hidden truths about the FBI’s relationship to her community. The Feeling of Being Watched follows Assia as she pieces together this secret FBI operation, while grappling with the effects of a lifetime of surveillance on herself and her family."

Learn more and register here.

The world is full of information. As journalists, we have a right to access a lot of it. This workshop is focused on how to use the Freedom of Information Act and state public records laws. We’ll learn about the kinds of information that open record laws can access, how to craft FOIA requests to get the information we need, and we’ll examine reporting that has successfully used these laws to break big stories.

Seth Freed Wessler is an award-winning investigative journalist and a reporting fellow at Type Media Center. He reports on criminal justice, immigration and racial inequality for the New York Times, Mother Jones, Reveal and other outlets. Seth is a co-founder of The Gumshoe Group and teaches investigative research methods at CUNY's Newmark School of Journalism.

Sarah Lamdan is a Professor of Law. She specializes in government information access and transparency, and especially issues related to environmental law and environmental information access. She teaches legal research, advanced legal research, public institutions, and lawyering seminar courses.

Freelance journalists face legal risks not experienced by staffers, perhaps most of all when exposing wrongdoing committed by well-resourced individuals or entities. It can be scary to follow defamation suits filed against other reporters, and unsettling to wonder how the law might play into our own investigations. That's why the Gumshoe Group and the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic are teaming up to host a virtual training on defamation legal principles and common pitfalls to avoid when pursuing investigations. This training is open to everyone.

When: Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020 from 5-6:30pm EST.
Who: Ava Lubell, NYC local journalism attorney for the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic. She previously served as. the general counsel for Quartz and the general manager and general counsel of Slate.
Cost: FREE!
To attend: Sign up here!

Gain tangible knowledge and skills, including:

• defamation legal principles most relevant to journalists, including new developments and trends

• common misconceptions about the law and common pitfalls to avoid

• practical tips on what to think about in advance of publication.

Rough schedule: A 60-minute presentation from Lubell, followed by a 30-minute Q&A from participants.

Questions? Queries? Concerns? Feel follow up with Aviva Stahl at contact@gumshoegroup.org

More than ever, the public is relying on freelance journalists to hold the police and politicians responsible for wrongdoing, which is why the Gumshoe Group and Study Hall have teamed up to host a virtual training on how to report on law enforcement. This training is open to everyone but is aimed specifically at freelancers with some basic FOI experience. 

When:  Thursday, June 11 from 5-6:30pm EST.

Who:

• Brandon Smith and Matt Topic - the freelance reporter + attorney who successfully forced the Chicago PD to release video footage of the police killing of Laquan McDonald.

• MJ Williams, a NYC-based attorney who's helped secure the release of multiple batches of records indicating the NYPD engaged in widespread spying of Black Lives Matter activists.

Cost: Suggested donation of $5 to the Ida B. Wells Society. 

To Attend: Sign up here.

Learn concrete skills, including how to: 

1. Draft and file FOIs with police departments

2. Identify which records are and aren't available through open records requests

3. Overcome common tricks used by FOI officers to withhold files 

4. File appeals and use other non-legal means to get your request fulfilled

5. Collaborate with other freelancers in your city to expose police misconduct  

Rough draft of the schedule:

1. 30-minute presentation from Smith and Topic - obtaining the video from beginning to end: from drafting the request, to following up with the PD, to filing a lawsuit and winning the court battle.

2. 15-minutes from Williams - common mistakes she sees in FOI requests and why it's important that reporters committed to police accountability pursue multiple investigative avenues (not just FOI requests).

3. 45-minute Q&A session/conversation to pose queries or collectively brainstorm how we, as freelance reporters, can best hold police departments accountable at the present moment.

Afterward, participants will receive a packet of information, including an annotated copy of an open records request, and a link to the recording of the call. 

Not familiar with the groups hosting this workshop? 

The Gumshoe Group is a recently-launched initiative, founded by award-winning journalists Seth Freed Wessler and Azmat Khan, that connects freelance reporters pursuing FOIA claims to lawyers willing/able to advocate or litigate on their behalf. Study Hall is an online support network + newsletter for media workers, many of whom are freelancers. 

Join the Gumshoe Group + Type Investigations for an online training for freelance reporters, led by Gunita Singh, Legal Fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Attendance will be strictly limited so the workshop can be targeted to address the desired skills/knowledge of those who sign up. Want to save your spot for this training, or get updates about future Gumshoe Group events? Sign up here.

Questions? Concerns? E-mail us at contact@gumshoegroup.org

***This event is sponsored by the Gumshoe Group in partnership with Type Investigations. The Gumshoe Group connects freelance reporters pursuing FOIA claims to lawyers willing/able to advocate or litigate on their behalf. Type Investigations, formerly The Investigative Fund, incubates high-impact investigative reporting that holds the powerful accountable.***