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Tampa Bay Times Wins 2021 Pulitzer Prize
The Tampa Bay Times today won journalism’s most prestigious award, the Pulitzer Prize. This is the Times’ 13th Pulitzer Prize.
The 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting was awarded to reporters Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi for “Targeted,” a yearlong investigation into how the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office uses computer modeling to identify and track people believed to be future crime suspects.
Published in 2020, the series exposed Pasco’s reliance on intelligence-led policing, a controversial practice that led deputies to closely monitor 1,000 people, including children. McGrory and Bedi discovered that the local school district shared information with law enforcement about students who performed poorly in school or who were victims of abuse. Landing on the sheriff’s list of potential criminals often meant targets would receive repeated visits from deputies that some people characterized as harassment.
“What Kathleen and Neil unearthed in Pasco County has had a profound impact on the community,” said Mark Katches, the Times executive editor. “This is what the best investigative journalism can do and why it is so essential.”
The award marks the third time the Times has won the Pulitzer Prize in the Local Reporting category. It is the only news organization to hold this distinction.
“We aim to keep our standards high and our focus on Tampa Bay,” said Paul Tash, the Times chairman and CEO. “It’s wonderful affirmation when our efforts are recognized with the prize that sets the gold standard for journalism.”
To read the series and all associated coverage, visit www.tampabay.com/special-reports/.
About the Tampa Bay Times
The Tampa Bay Times is widely considered one of the Top Ten newspapers in America and has won 13 Pulitzer Prizes. It is Florida’s largest newspaper and publishes tampabay.com - Tampa Bay’s largest local news Web site. Additionally, the company publishes the free weekly tbt*, an edition of the Tampa Bay Times, and Bay magazine.
Times’ History of Pulitzer Prizes
2021: Local reporting – Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi for their work in exposing how the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office used computer modeling to identify and closely monitor people believed to be potential criminals.
2016: Local reporting – Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner for their work in exposing how Pinellas County school leaders withheld promised funding and support from five predominantly black schools creating Failure Factories.
2016: Investigative Reporting – Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of the Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for Insane, Invisible, In Danger. The reporters used thousands of pages of records and pieced together the first comprehensive database of violence and injury at Florida’s state mental hospitals that showed how violence and death got worse after state officials cut funding to the hospitals by $100 million.
2014: Local Reporting – Will Hobson and Michael LaForgia for prompting swift reform of the Hillsborough County’s Homeless Recovery program after exposing the unsafe living conditions provided to the homeless.
2013: Editorial Writing – Tim Nickens and Dan Ruth for helping reverse the decision to end fluoridation of water in Pinellas County.
2009: National Reporting – the Times staff for PolitiFact, its fact-checking initiative to help voters sort out the truth in politics during the 2008 presidential campaign.
2009: Feature Writing – Lane DeGregory for her story about the discovery of a feral child shut off from the world until she was discovered and adopted by a supportive family.
1998: Feature Writing – Thomas French for his detailed and compassionate narrative portrait of a mother and two daughters slain on a Florida vacation, and the three-year investigation into their murders.
1995: Editorial Writing – Jeffrey Good for his editorial campaign urging reform of Florida’s probate system for settling estates.
1991: Feature Writing – Sheryl James for a compelling series about a mother who abandoned her newborn child and how it affected her life and those of others.
1985: Investigative Reporting – Lucy Morgan and Jack Reed for thorough reporting on Pasco County Sheriff John Short, which revealed his department’s corruption and led to his removal from office by voters.
1980: National Reporting – Bette Orsini and Charles Stafford for an investigation of the Church of Scientology.
1964: Meritorious Public Service – The Times and writer Martin Waldron for coverage of the Florida Turnpike Authority and its reckless expenditure of public money.
