It’s been four years since a Phoenix police officer killed Jacob Harris. Records obtained by The Appeal show officials have made inconsistent or false statements about the night police killed him. As Harris’s friends grow up behind bars, his father won’t stop until he gets justice for his son.

Former top cops say the NYPD has spent years neglecting serious structural problems that have long damaged sex crimes and child abuse investigations in New York City. In multiple cases, women were assaulted and children were killed after detectives failed to appropriately investigate reports of rape or abuse.

In the past three years, Miami-area police have sent 5,255 people to jail for possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana, according to a New Times review of Miami-Dade booking data. Most of those arrests—which cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars for arresting, transporting, and housing prisoners—could have been taken care of with a ticket.

One night in October 2013, Monica Evans sat in her dorm room scrolling through Craigslist. She had found her current restaurant job on the site, but after her parents told her she’d have to pay for college herself, she needed to find another way to make some fast cash. That night, she responded to an ad that would upend her life.

Sheila Dixon used to collect newspaper clippings: Officer fined in traffic death. Driver who killed 5 to serve 1 year. Bishop gets probation for hit and run. She put them in a storage box alongside the transcripts from her son Justin Dixon’s trial. In 2006, he was sentenced to more than 51 years in prison after he drank at a Phoenix bar and crashed his car.

Wherever the Proud Boys go, violence seems to follow. In February 2017, a fight broke out between anti-fascists and Proud Boys after their founder, Gavin McInnes, gave a speech at New York University. Nine Proud Boys face criminal charges in New York following a fight after a leading member re-enacted assassination of a Japanese socialist leader.

Besides working, Samuel spent time with his family and cared for his aging mother and father. She had a chronic health condition, and Samuel drove her to her doctor’s appointments. Then, one day, Samuel checked into the ICE office and never returned. “It was like a death sentence,” his brother said.

Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne have spent decades behind bars even after a jury acquitted them of murder. Now, the Virginia Supreme Court is set to decide their fate. A judge sentenced Richardson and Claiborne to life in prison using “acquitted conduct sentencing.”

How does a double homicide with eight witnesses go unsolved? On a warm September night in 2008, Ty and Trevor Metheny were hanging out downstairs at their parents’ Phoenix townhouse with five of their friends when someone banged on the door. They heard it once, then again, and again and again until the door broke open and three teenagers carrying long guns burst in.

A review of hundreds of cases of sexual assault at sea and interviews with eight maritime lawyers, two cruise safety advocates, a congresswoman, and several victims show that Jane and Abby are far from alone. Since 2016, 220 sexual assaults aboard cruise ships have been reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

It happens every week in Florida, the second deadliest state after California for deaths on the tracks. In 2017, 76 people were killed here, a seven-year high. Most of those deaths occurred in South Florida. Some came on the Tri-Rail tracks, where Lee Schaller was struck, but the new Brightline train has also become problematic recently as faster passenger trains have set off.

The NYPD’s sex crimes division has been plagued by problems for years. In 2018, The Appeal documented instances in which special victims detectives pressured rape victims into signing a form that closed their case against their will. In 2019, data showed that the NYPD closed 25 percent of cases due to an alleged lack of participation from rape victims.

A federal district court judge in Arizona has placed an injunction on a 2021 law that grants fetuses at any stage of development the same rights as citizens of Arizona. The injunction prevents the law from being used to bring criminal charges against people who provide or obtain abortions.

In Maricopa County, 15 people who attended a Black Lives Matter protest are being charged with rioting, aggravated assault, and assisting in a criminal street gang, all serious felonies that could land them in prison for decades. The gang charges are based only on the fact that the group carried umbrellas and wore black.

The Appeal reviewed charges levied against thousands of people arrested at last spring’s protests. We identified nearly 40 cases where protesters have faced serious felony charges, including allegedly committing a hate crime on a law enforcement officer, mob action, and attempted ethnic intimidation.

In 2015, Los Angeles County created a program to reduce the number of mentally ill people trapped in jail. But since then, the number of people with mental illness incarcerated in LA has instead increased significantly. Advocates say solutions are within reach and question the county’s reticence to fully fund ODR when the program has been so successful.

In the past three years, Miami police have sent 50 people to jail for “unlawful use of a dairy case,” according to booking data from the Miami-Dade Department of Corrections. During that same time, police arrested 58 people for possession of a shopping cart.

From April 2015 to June 2018, Miami police arrested Jose Medina, who is homeless, 70 times. In June, the arrests suddenly stopped. Relatives told The Appeal that Medina had been hit by a car and killed. Police filed an accident report but never arrested anyone for Medina's death.

After The Appeal published an investigation into the Phoenix Police Department’s killing of 19-year-old Jacob Harris, a community coalition sprung up to help Harris’s three young friends, who are incarcerated for his death. Now, a court has granted the trio a chance to get out of prison.

Appeared on 12News’s Sunday Square Off to discuss the Maricopa County prosecutor’s race.

Consulted with a producer from “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on HBO to shape an episode about the NYPD’s Special Victims Division.

Appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC to discuss the Department of Justice investigation into the NYPD’s Special Victims Division.

Spoke with host Lisa Mullins about the prosecution of campus protesters.

Appeared on NPR & WBUR to discuss a data project tracking arrests of campus protesters.

Appeared before The Majority Report’s 2.1 million subscribers to discuss an investigation into a police killing in Phoenix.

Appeared on Law & Disorder with Cat Brooks to discuss the Department of Justice investigation into the Phoenix Police Department

Appeared on a local Bay Area radio show to discuss an award-winning investigation into police corruption in Arizona.

Appeared on The Damage Report with John Iadarola to discuss reporting on sex traffickers.

Appeared on The Show on KJZZ to discuss misconduct plaguing a tiny police department in Globe, Arizona.

Appeared on The Show on KJZZ to discuss Waymo's relationship with local police departments in Phoenix, Arizona.