Contact: fac@firstamendmentcoalition.org
San Rafael, Calif. – Candice Nguyen of NBC Bay Area; Cody Dulaney of inewsource; and a six-person team from CBS News and Stations and The Trace, in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, are the winners of the 2024 FAC Free Speech and Open Government Award.
“All of this work exemplifies the finest in public service journalism,” said FAC Executive Director David Snyder. “In an age when the news media is constantly vilified by our leaders and distrust of the government is endemic, FAC is proud to honor these courageous journalists who speak truth to power and hold our institutions accountable.”
Candice Nguyen and her team at NBC Bay Area investigated the failures of California’s new, statewide, internet-based emergency calling system called Next Generation 911. Nguyen researched “CA Next Gen 911: Too Big to Fail” for 1½ years, which included public records requests for dispatch records and building relationships with confidential sources inside 911 centers. The problems began with the system’s rollout in Tuolumne and the Coachella counties, where dispatchers experienced misrouted and dropped calls. Some dispatchers were overwhelmed with misrouted 911 calls from across the state. Other days, they experienced complete 911 outages for 6 to 12 hours.
These problems put lives at risk. Members of the State 911 Advisory Board were unaware of many of these setbacks, or that the head of the project at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), Budge Currier, left his position in August 2024 after Nguyen started asking questions. NBC Bay Area’s reporting prompted concern that the state agency misled the board – and the public – about safety problems. Cal OES had promised the new system would be rolled out in 2021, but as of 2025, only a handful of small counties are using it. The original $300 million budget has ballooned to nearly a half billion dollars.
As a result of Nguyen and her team’s reporting, officials suspended deployment of the new system across the state.
Chris Hacker, Stephen Stock, Amy Corral, and Nicole Vap of CBS News and Stations and Champe Barton and Alain Stephens of The Trace collaborated with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting on “Shot by a Civilian Wielding a Police Gun,” about how former police duty weapons end up being used in crimes. The team used data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives going back to 2006, and from more than 200 public records requests found that more than 52,000 former police guns that were resold were later used in crimes. Many police departments resold their weapons while holding buyback events, which they say are important to pull guns off the street.
Law enforcement responded to the story by either halting the reselling of former police guns or reforming their practices. The San Diego City Council passed a law prohibiting police from selling their guns to gun dealers with inspection violations.
Cody Dulaney of inewsource revealed illegal rent increases in low-income housing in San Diego. Dulaney’s monthslong investigation, “San Diego agency might be approving illegal rent increases while taxpayers foot the bill,” found that due to a lack of oversight by the San Diego Housing Commission, residents in federal Section 8 housing have been subjected to rent increases that violate the state’s 2020 Tenant Protection Act, which caps rent increases at 10% within 12 months. Through a California Public Records Act request, Dulaney found that during one week in 2022, the commission approved rent increases of as much as 53%. Follow-up reporting revealed two other housing agencies in San Diego County were also failing to check whether rent increases were lawful under state law. These rent increases impacted as many as 27,000 thousands of low-income residents.
Following this report, the Housing Commission announced it will enact a local policy that mirrors the state law, and the county has told staff to check the math on rent increase requests. A lawsuit has also been filed to return the funds paid illegally to private landlords.
This year’s honorees were selected by the FAC Awards Committee, composed of Snyder, FAC board members Katherine Rowlands and Janice Gin, and Board of Special Advisors members Dick Rogers, and Scott Lindlaw.
The First Amendment Coalition’s annual Free Speech and Open Government Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement of free expression or the people’s right to know about their government.