Review-Journal report on police shootings honored in national contests

The Las Vegas Review-Journal's recent investigative report "Deadly Force: When Las Vegas police shoot, and kill" has been honored in two national journalism contests in recent days.

The series, published Nov. 27 through Dec. 1, examined two decades of officer-involved shootings in Southern Nevada.

Among its findings: Las Vegas police are more likely than those in other major urban areas to fire their guns; department officials seldom discipline officers involved in shootings and are slow to adopt tactics that could reduce such incidents; and county prosecutors rarely review shootings to determine whether the officers' actions were legal, yet they shape coroner's inquest presentations to ensure a finding of justifiable homicide.

On Friday, the series received a second place for Public Service in the National Headliner Awards, one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic excellence. The award specifically recognizes reporters Lawrence Mower, Alan Maimon and Brian Haynes. First place went to The Boston Globe.

The Review-Journal series also was named last week as a finalist in two categories in the national Investigative Reporters & Editors contest: investigative reporting and multiplatform investigations using print, video and Internet in presentation.

In this contest, the Review-Journal competed with medium-size news organizations, which included all newspapers with daily circulation of 151,000 to 349,000.

The Review-Journal's circulation is about 157,000.

Winners, respectively, were the Seattle Times and a partnership between the Web-based California Watch and public radio's KQED-San Francisco.

In addition to reporters Mower, Haynes and Maimon, the IRE awards recognize photographer Justin Yurkanin, online producer Shane Gammon and project editor James G. Wright.

"I'm very proud of our reporters and editors who were involved in this series," said Review-Journal Editor Michael Hengel. "The issue was very important, and the amount of work involved was extraordinary.

"This investigation spanned 13 months and was among the more significant the R-J has ever tackled. It's the kind of work that only a newspaper can do well. Though the recognition is secondary, it is very gratifying."

"Deadly Force: When Las Vegas police shoot, and kill" remains available online at www.reviewjournal.com and as an eBook sold through Amazon.com.