In April of 2008 the Chicago Headline Club’s Watchdog Fund awarded $5000 to the Chi-Town Daily News a Chicago online news organization.
Editor Geoff Dougherty’s investigative project includes a public opinion poll of several hundred Chicago households designed to assess residents’ perceptions of the police brutality problem their level of trust in the department, and their confidence in the department to discipline officers who mistreat citizens.
The project is investigating federal data bases to determine how frequently brutality complaints are filed in Chicago versus in other major cities.
The Watchdog Fund, thanks to the generous support of the Richard Driehaus Foundation, helps journalists and freelance writers working on investigative stories.