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.
How Chicago Became an Unlikely Leader in Body-Camera Transparency
The city has a long history of brutal, violent policing, but its latest approach to body-worn cameras and police oversight could serve as a national model.
NYPD Will Stop Withholding Body-Camera Footage of Police Shootings From Civilian Investigators
After questions from ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, the New York Police Department pledged to end its practice of not sharing videos in ongoing investigations with the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
How Police Have Undermined the Promise of Body Cameras
Hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars have been spent on what was sold as a revolution in transparency and accountability. Instead, police departments routinely refuse to release footage — even when officers kill.
Video Showed an Officer Trying to Stop His Partner From Shooting. Investigators Never Asked About the Footage.
We obtained the NYPD’s full investigation into the killing of Kawaski Trawick, including documents and audio of interviews with the officers. The records provide a rare window into how exactly a police department examines its own after a shooting.
How America’s Democracy Is “Ripe to Be Exploited”
Why are so many people now embracing demagogues? Barbara Walter, political scientist and author of “How Civil Wars Start,” tells ProPublica that the vital signs of healthy democracy are in decline around the world.
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.