Brian Howey is an award-winning investigative journalist who has covered topics ranging from policing to wedgefish. He has published work in the The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, the Los Angeles Times and various other national, regional and local publications. Howey and his reporting partner, Nate Rosenfield, are currently developing a new reporting project focused on law enforcement accountability. He is a proud community college graduate and he earned a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where he studied investigative reporting and narrative writing.
Impact
After Howey’s reporting team uncovered new evidence related to a Mississippi jail death previously ruled an accident, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation re-opened its probe into the incident. The bureau also launched an investigation into a video the reporting team obtained showing guards at the same jail torturing a developmentally disabled Black inmate with a shock vest.
In 2025, California legislators passed a new law effectively outlawing a troubling policing practice exposed by Howey’s reporting, which found that California investigators had been withholding death notifications from the families of people killed by police to mine them for disparaging information about the deceased, which agencies later used to defend their officers in court.
Howey’s and his colleague’s reporting on the lack of accountability for police Taser use in Mississippi inspired state lawmakers to propose two bills in 2025 that would have increased oversight over law enforcement Taser use. The reporting also prompted several law enforcement agencies to review and change their Taser policies.
After Howey and his team published their series investigating criminal acts by Mississippi sheriffs, state lawmakers passed a 2024 law that gives investigative powers to Mississippi’s law enforcement certification board, allowing the board to revoke officer licenses even when they are not charged with a crime. The Justice Department also launched a department-wide investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, citing the team’s reporting as a reason for the probe. Even after the Trump DOJ scuttled federal investigations into law enforcement agencies across the country, the Justice Department allowed its probe of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department to continue after Howey and his team exposed decades of brutality inside the Rankin County jail. It is one of only two law enforcement agency investigations the DOJ has allowed to continue.
Howey’s reporting on policing practices in Vallejo, Calif., and Aurora, Colo., prompted reviews of department policies at those cities’ police departments.
In 2020, Howey’s reporting on San Francisco’s controversial use of encampment sweeps to confiscate unhoused residents’ belongings led the city to temporarily halt the practice.
Awards
2026
- Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism for a series of investigations into police use of Tasers and conditions in a Mississippi jail.
- First Amendment Coalition’s Free Speech and Open Government Award for a series of investigations into police use of Tasers and conditions in a Mississippi jail.
- Semi-Finalist – Goldsmith Award for Investigative Reporting for a series of investigations into police use of Tasers and conditions in a Mississippi jail.
2025
- duPont-Columbia Award for a podcast exposé of a controversial police interview tactic popularized by one of the nation’s largest developers of law enforcement policy manuals. Reported in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Program, the Los Angeles Times and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
2024
- George Polk Award for a two-part exposé of a controversial police interview tactic popularized by one of the nation’s largest developers of law enforcement policy manuals. Reported in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Program, the Los Angeles Times and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
- Finalist – Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs, a series about abuse of power by sheriff’s departments for Mississippi Today and The New York Times.
- Finalist – Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs, a series about abuse of power by sheriff’s departments for Mississippi Today and The New York Times.
- Sacramento Press Club Journalism Award for Best Criminal Justice Reporting.
2020
- SPJ Excellence in Journalism Award for reporting on San Francisco’s response to homelessness during the onset of the pandemic
- Third Place – Best of the West journalism awards for Force of Law, a series about California legislation that was promised to be the strictest police shooting law in the country.