Red light camera investigation gets national honor
The Daily Herald's investigative series "Seeing Red," which targeted red-light cameras around the suburbs, was a finalist in a national contest by the Investigative Reporters & Editors.
Daily Herald Projects & Politics Editor Joe Ryan and Transportation Writer Marni Pyke researched and wrote the series, which was published in the Daily Herald in July 2009.
"It's exceptional, useful, locally-focused journalism, and it's wonderful a top-notch organization like IRE has recognized it," said Daily Herald Managing Editor Madeleine Doubek.
The Daily Herald series was honored in the medium-sized newspaper category, those with a circulation between 100,000 and 250,000. The annual IRE contest honors outstanding work done by newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and other media.
"Seeing Red" observed red-light cameras and whether they were improving safety or just becoming money makers for local government. The series took a closer look at who gets tickets and why, where the revenue goes, how the locations for the cameras are chosen, how to appeal the tickets received, and if they have improved safety conditions. The series found that cameras were not being installed at intersections with a high accident rates, but instead in high traffic areas.
The winner in the category was from the Sarasota Herald Tribune exposing a housing scam called, "Flipping Fraud."
Besides the Daily Herald, other finalists were "Judge Hecht" by The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) and "Tainted Justice" by Philadelphia Daily News.
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<li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/packages/2009/redlightcameras/" target="new">Red light camera series</a></li>
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