Eric Umansky
Eric Umansky is an editor-at-large at ProPublica.
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Eric Umansky is an editor-at-large at ProPublica, where he has overseen two Pulitzer Prize-winning projects. Most recently, a series he edited on NYPD abuse of “nuisance abatement” laws won the Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service. Umansky oversaw much of ProPublica's Trump administration coverage, including the “Trump, Inc.” podcast with WNYC, which won a DuPont Award. More recently, Umansky has reported with his colleagues on police accountability in New York City. The work has won the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting and the Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting. It has also been credited with helping spur reforms.
Umansky joined ProPublica when it started in 2008. Before that, he wrote a column for Slate. Umansky has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and many others. He is also a co-founder of Document Cloud.
A Police Car Hit a Kid on Halloween 2019. The NYPD Is Quashing a Move to Punish the Officer.
Civilian investigators found that officers engaged in serious misconduct, including hitting one boy with a car, pointing a gun at another and wrongly arresting three teens. Then the NYPD intervened.
Judge Says NYPD Illegally Withheld Footage in Police Shootings
A New York state judge said the NYPD was operating in “bad faith” when it denied requests to release body-worn camera footage from the killing of Kawaski Trawick.
Police Watchdog Calls for Full Access to Body Cam Footage. The NYPD Says No.
The inspector general for the NYPD concludes, as ProPublica has detailed, that the police aren’t giving civilian investigators full access to body-worn camera footage.
Here’s Why Rapid COVID Tests Are So Expensive and Hard to Find
Monthslong silences. Mysterious rejections. Here’s what's behind the shortages of a critical tool for ending the pandemic.
After NYPD Found “No Wrongdoing” in Officer’s Killing of Kawaski Trawick, a Watchdog Finds Fireable Offenses
New York City’s police oversight agency brought disciplinary charges against the officer who killed Kawaski Trawick. While the NYPD found no wrongdoing, ProPublica published footage showing it was the cops who escalated the situation.
The Inside Story of How de Blasio Promised, Then Thwarted NYPD Accountability
Bill de Blasio once pledged powerful oversight of the police. Then he became mayor. Insiders reveal what happened next.
What Police Impunity Looks Like: “There Was No Discipline as No Wrongdoing Was Found”
To understand why police are so rarely held accountable for killings, you should know about Kawaski Trawick, and what didn’t happen to the officer who shot him.
New York City Kills COVID Rule That Led to Repeated School Closings Despite No Evidence of Outbreaks
Last week ProPublica cited epidemiologists saying New York was “crazy” to keep closing schools over two unlinked positive cases. This week, the city ended the rule.
My Kids’ School Closed Again. So I Started Calling Experts.
Many New York City public schools have been repeatedly closed because of two positive COVID-19 tests, even without evidence of in-school spread. Experts call it “crazy.” And it’s driving me nuts.
Only Two NYPD Officers Face Serious Discipline From a Watchdog’s Investigations Into Abuse of Black Lives Matter Protesters
After ProPublica detailed the lack of disclosure about protest cases by New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, the agency has revealed how little progress has been made on many of the investigations.