Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award.
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Two local television news stations from the Tampa Bay area won a prestigious national investigative reporting award this week.
WFTS-TV and WTSP 10 News will both receive duPont awards.
According to a press release from Columbia University:
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism today announced 14 winners of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards. Investigative journalism will win seven awards spread across network television, radio, online and at the local level, most often in overlapping platforms. Four awards will go to local television news investigations, including reporting by KPNX 12 News, Phoenix; WFTS-TV, Tampa; WLTX-TV, Columbia; and WTSP 10 News, Tampa Bay.
…Outstanding local television investigative reporting will be honored with four duPont awards, including two for West Florida stations: WFTS-TV, Tampa uncovered greed and corruption in their searing report, “Incapacitated: Florida’s Guardianship Program,” which revealed lack of oversight in taking care of vulnerable senior citizens; WTSP 10 News, Tampa Bay’s investigation, “Short Yellows and the Red Light Fight,” exposed ways governments abused technology to cheat drivers. KPNX 12 News, Phoenix, took on the Phoenix Fire Department’s renowned arson squad, prompting changes in their staff and practices. WLTX-TV, Columbia’s investigation “DSS: When The System Fails,” examined the tragic death of a four year-old and serious flaws at the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
WFTS-TV’s report, “Incapacitated: Florida’s Guardianship Program,” is a deep dive into a range of problems with a state program aimed at taking care of Florida’s vulnerable elderly population.
Here is the station’s description of the reporting:
The ABC Action News I-Team first started looking into Florida’s Guardianship Program after we learned 99-year-old William Berchau had been placed in an Alzheimer’s unit by his guardian, despite strong evidence from those who know him best that he didn’t belong there.
We soon began looking at more than 50 other cases involving his guardian, Patricia Johnson, and Florida’s guardianship system.
The I-Team discovered a system that claims to look after wards’ best interests, but has very little oversight outside of the courtroom.
In Florida, guardians are not required to get appraisals before selling wards’ homes, leading to homes often selling far below their actual values (meaning less money is available for wards’ care). Guardians also aren’t required to be accompanied while doing initial inventories of personal possessions. Often, relatives aren’t allowed to review what reportedly came out of their loved ones’ homes.
Guardians use the “honor system” when submitting bills.
Judges, in some cases, have disregarded signed legal documents that delegated powers-of-attorney, medical decision-making and other legal authorities to their relatives before wards were incapacitated.
The I-Team interviewed friends and family members of wards, experts in the guardian field and others to get a deeper sense of what’s going on within this system that remains invisible to most members of the public.
WTSP 10 News’ report, “Short Yellows and the Red Light Fight,” showed how drivers in the state were getting improperly fined for red light camera violations. At issue were shorter yellow lights driving up the number of people getting ticketed.
According to WTSP, “by exposing short yellow lights and other unsafe manipulations, we prompted the state to change its signal timing policies and legislators to re-write red light camera laws,” the news station wrote on its website.
“Our more than 60 stories in the series not only corrected injustices, but it made intersections safer and launched a national conversation about fairness of red light camera technology,” WTSP wrote.