Dear Free Presser,

This fall, a Chicago headline caught my eye: A man who had posed with Governor J.B. Pritzker at a “Peacekeepers” anti-violence event had just been charged with murder.

The local press quickly moved on. Not me.

I spent the next three months filing Freedom of Information Act requests, knocking on doors on the South Side, and calling up ex–gang members. Here’s what I found: The Peacekeepers program is just one piece of a $1 billion experiment that a growing number of city leaders, law enforcement officials, and even a donor now say has gone wrong. One city alderman called it a “scam.” A member of the mayor’s own public safety team told me it is a “revolving door” for gang members.

Most news outlets wouldn’t touch this kind of story. Not because there’s no news value—but because it’s the wrong kind of news. It disrupts a narrative that has quietly taken hold across America over the past decade: that communities know best how to solve their own problems, not the police.

But at The Free Press, we interrogate what others ignore. We investigated the fact that no one could answer simple questions about these programs—like how much the state had spent on them in total and how common arrests of its members were.

That’s the reason I work here. It’s the reason I became a journalist in the first place. To tell stories no one else will and to do the work needed to find the truth and bring it to you.

If you find yourself wanting more of this—more reporters in the field, more investigations that go where the story leads regardless of how inconvenient the answer—there’s only one way to make that possible. A Free Press subscription is what sends me to Chicago. It’s what gives me the time to get it right.

Upgrade to Paid

Become a paid subscriber today and read the full investigation—and watch our video report—to support more stories like this one.

What Happens When You Pay Ex–Gang Members to Stop Crime? Ask Chicago. Olivia Reingold Read full story

Yours,

Olivia Reingold